Mugabe's Opponents Claim Victory

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe may have lost the election held yesterday, despite reports of voting irregularities.

Defying a government order, Zimbabwe's main opposition party released its election results on Sunday, claiming an early victory for their presidential candidate.
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe campaigns in the capital of Harare last week.
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Sunday's announcement sets up a showdown with Zimbabwe's government, which will release the results of its count on Monday.

Leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have already dismissed the government's results -- expected to show a victory for President Robert Mugabe -- as rigged in favor of the incumbent leader.

At a news conference in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, MDC leaders said their candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has won 67 percent of the vote, based on one-third of the returns, journalists inside Zimbabwe told CNN.

The party did not explain how it arrived at those results.

For his part, Mugabe's government was not allowing media access to the country to cover the election, which should tell you that he's not going to release the results unless and until they meet his needs - that he wins by hook or crook. The African Union's observers have found massive fraud, including voter rolls full of non-existent people or the dead.

Mugabe has ruined Zimbabwe in every conceivable way. While talk of inflation fears in the United States revolves around rates in the low single digits, Zimbabwe's inflation rate is more than 100,000%. A million Zimbabwean dollars is virtually worthless. Of course, you couldn't find a job with which to make money since unemployment hovers around 80%. Starvation and hunger are common, despite the fact that the nation was once a major exporter of grain to the rest of Africa.

Mugabe's economic and social policies destroyed Zimbabwe from within. This election could help right a wrong that has been nearly 30 years in the making. One further problem is that Mugabe has said that the opposition release of election results before the official results are posted amounts to a coup. He wants to control the entire process, which is quite troubling, and it also suggests the possibility of violence breaking out if the opposition continues to report that they're leading in the elections and the final results show something quite different.