Another Round For The Zimbabwe Elections

In this CNN article, the results of the ongoing Zimbabwe elections have finally been declared official.

Robert Mugabe, long time president of Zimbabwe (since 1980), met his most fierce political rival for the countries 2008 presidential elections. Both the presidential and primary elections were held on March 29th, yet the official results of the election were withheld until today.

The withholding of the results created a slew of accusations that Mugabe's party was attempting to rig the voting process to remain in power. Opposition to Mugabe's rule called for him to step down after 28 years in office.

The MDC, or Movement for Democratic Change, stated that the popular vote was won by Mugabe's main opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. In an almost foreseeable twist, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party actually accused the MDC and Tsvangirai's party of riging the elections.

While it was released that the main opposition leader won 47.9 percent of votes, compared to Mugabe's 43.2 percent, neither candidate received the required 50 percent of votes. Therefore, a runoff election is going to be held as is required by Zimbabwe law.

A date for the runoff election has not yet been determined although the MDC has stated that they will not take part in any such election because Mugabe will rig them again. If this were to happen, Mugabe would remain the president of Zimbabwe.

The question I have is that when is enough, enough? Power is a tough thing to relinquish. Especially after 28 years controlling a country. But amid the many accusations that Mugabe's party has rigged the elections and still lost the popular vote, he needs to step down.

Mugabe's party has been accused of violating human rights laws among other things, and it is about time that his rule comes to an end. Unfortunately, if the MDC decides not to participate in the runoff elections, Zimbabwe will see another term of his tyrannous rule.

Robert Mugabe Morgan Tsvangirai