Could Zimbabwe be the Next Kenya?
Posted on March 30, 2008 - Filed Under Elections |
Inflation is running at over 100,000 percent a year. Unemployment is around 80%. The ruling party has been in power for decades. Time for a change, right?
Results from the election are trickling in and the government early Monday halting the counting of votes, a clear sign that something is afoul.
Yesterday the people of Zimbabwe cast their votes in a critical election. For a generation they have been ruled by the government of Robert Mugabe, and while Zimbabwe had a stable and growing economy for many years, recently things have taken a turn for the worse. Even on election day people were scurrying to escape the country in hopes of a better life elsewhere instead of voting for a new life in Zimbabwe.
Reports of fraud and election rigging are already documented. There are reports of people loyal to the opposition party who were turned away from the polls. Even when the early returns showed the opposition ahead, Mugabe’s government said its far too early to know the outcome and any other talk is an effort to spark a coup.
That statement was the first outward sign of the entrenchment attitude taken by the government. If Mugabe is intent on staying, even if the election results say otherwise, what happens then for Zimbabwe?
Earlier this year, in Kenya, a disputed election lead to over 1,000 deaths, riots and chaos in that stable country. Only recently, in a power sharing agreement between the two political factions, was peace achieved. Zimbabwe is now in danger of traveling down that same road if this election outcome is in doubt. That could spell for troubled times ahead for this country.
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