Debating Myself

Zimbabwe’s 84 year old dictator Robert Mugabe will someday no doubt be the subject of a book titled “How Not to Run A Country” or alternatively “How to Squander, Exploit, and Destroy a Nation”.

In his tenure as Zimbabwe’s “President” Mugabe has seen inflation skyrocket to an unimaginable and unbelievable 100,000%. The US dollar, even in its current feeble state, is worth around 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars–but you won’t be able to trade it for that price because the rate gets worse every single day.

Even if you forget that Mugabe also destroyed 400,000 homes in a crackdown on black market trading and zoning violations, the opposition should be able to phone this election in and still win by a landslide. Right? Right?!?

Wrong. In the Parliament the ruling party, Mugabe’s Zanu PF, is still managing a slim lead as election results are released. Although the opposition has declared itself the winner in the presidential vote, the results are not being released. For up to the minute results check out this blog set up by the Zimbabwe Guardian based in London.

Obviously this isn’t a fair election. Some curious factors that only add to that suspicion:

• Each round of results being released show 50% of the seats going to MDC (the Opposition) and the other 50% going to Zanu PF–with a slight lead emerging only in the last round of results.
• South African observers were driven away by secret service and security forces after allegedly witnessing voter intimidation.
• Mugabe has a history of voter intimidation.
• The results of the Presidential election are not being released despite being counted alongside the votes of the Parliamentary votes.

For a good summary of the election and the craziness surrounding the results, read this article from the Deutsche Welle.

Why should we care?

Zimbabwe is certainly important economically. The country possesses a huge amount of untapped wealth in the form of natural resources including coal, platinum and other precious metals.

Also, geopolitically the country is situated north of Africa’s stablest democratic regime (which is a minor endorsement for South Africa I suppose) and the potential for large scale destabilization there to spillover and erase the stabilizing effect of South Africa’s presence is considerable.

Zimbabwe will continue to be a source of geopolitical economic struggle due to its vast mineral resources. With China, India, the EU and the US all clamoring for more commodities, the fate and stability of mineral-rich and politically impoverished nations is increasingly important.

Tags: Mugabe, Zimbabwe

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Africa, Comparative Politics, Region. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.