Mugabe Moves Towards Exit?

The opposition to Robert Mugabe's government has been preparing for this very instance. They saw what happened when they had a chance to unseat Mugabe from power in 2005, and saw how he stole that election. They didn't want the same thing to happen this time. They photographed election sites and the results from polling places, just in case Mugabe's official results differed from the opposition numbers.

Still, Mugabe's government is playing games with the numbers to the point of claiming that a run off election may be needed. Anyone who has been paying attention to the situation in Zimbabwe would know that Mugabe knows a thing or two about inflation - whether it is 100,000% inflation in the economy, or inflating his election results to stay in power.

Advisers of Zimbabwe's president and main opposition leader are discussing Robert Mugabe relinquishing power, The Associated Press has learned from someone close to the state electoral commission.

Meanwhile, a projection by the ruling party, ZANU-PF, indicates that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will beat Mugabe, but be forced into a runoff vote in three weeks, Reuters reported.

Zimbabwe’s opposition has claimed victory in Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Mugabe has been accused of stealing past elections, though that was before Zimbabwe’s economy collapsed and leading members of his own party openly defied him.

The diplomats are busy trying to get Mugabe and the opposition to negotiate over the terms of a peaceful transition from power.

Mugabe will have to be given quite the golden parachute to make that happen. He still has support from the military and unless the military sees the writing on the wall and chooses to follow the election results that show the opposition clearly winning, they may continue to enable Mugabe's hold on power to the detriment of all Zimbabweans.