A Foodie's Foray in France
Zimbabwe: Hopes for a Move "From Opposition to Proposition" (allAfrica.com)
posted Thursday, 3 April 2008
Trying my best to keep up with what is happening in Zimbabwe.
For an interesting, often crass and humorous take on Zimbabwe politics, check out “robmugabe”’s profile on Twitter CLICK HERE. (For those of you out of the loop on the Twitter-thing, it is an online “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”)
From allAfrica.com:
A leading commentator in Zimbabwe has sounded a note of caution after the country passed a political milestone that saw the opposition win control of the lower house of parliament in weekend elections.
This marks the first instance in which parliamentary power has passed to the opposition since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, and the question now is whether the presidency will follow suit.
Results announced in a trickle by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) over the past three days show that the larger faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by former unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, won 99 seats in the 210-seat lower house, while a splinter group of the movement gained 10; the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the former ruling party, won 97 seats. An additional seat was captured by an independent, leaving three seats still to be contested.
From The Economist:
WHATEVER the final outcome of Zimbabwe’s curious general elections at the weekend—and it remains possible, despite indications of a big win for the opposition, that President Robert Mugabe will refuse to relinquish power—it has produced some significant changes. Even before the voting took place on Saturday March 29th Mr Mugabe must have felt less comfortable in State House than at any time before in his 28 years in office. An old ally from the ruling ZANU-PF party, Simba Makoni, had defected to run as an opposition candidate. New election arrangements, established under pressure from neighbouring South Africa, had allowed the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to campaign more freely in rural areas that were long dominated by Mr Mugabe’s party. In addition polling stations were told to post results in public once counting in each constituency was complete.