Zimbabwe election: The stolen ballots

Robert Mugabe's henchmen have long been suspected of stealing civil servant postal ballots. This GuardianFilms exclusive provides the first evidence of how they did it.

Zimbabwe election: The stolen ballots | World news | guardian.co.uk

[Comrade_007]

Something we all suspected all along, but always good to see the hard-and-fast evidence. Will it make a difference? I think so, because the regime has always been able to say: "Prove it". Now at least the evidence is on the table. They will attempt to relativise it, or say it is an isolated incident,etc. etc. but in people's minds this confirms why Mugabe supposedly won a landslide with over 85%, althoguh he only got 47% previously. It's called rigging and ZANU-PF and the security services have become experts on it over the past elections.

[Jay]

The proof of the video is in the viewing?

[Jay]

85%? of what? of the 40% odd people that were "persuaded" to vote? That still means nearly 70% of the people in Zim don't want him.


He may have seven degrees, but he can't count

[Uncle Paul]

The more I think about it, the more bizarre this whole election becomes, and the more bizarre the behaviour by Mbeki and our very own Pohamba. I mean ALL the evidence that is currently available points to a DEEPLY FLAWED electoral process in Zimbabwe. It reminds me of the completely staged and sham elections in former communist countries like the German Democratic Republic. They also had so-called elections, where the rulnig party ALWAYS, year-in, year-out won 98-99% of the vote. It was too sad to be funny.

There is just no two ways about the fact that Mugabe cannot claim any legitimacy whatsoever based on the results of the run-off. All the observer missions have confirmed our worst fears. Legitimising Mugabe and the ZANU-PF regime after this charade basically says to the world: "Look - we don't care whether they rigged. We don't care whether they maimed and tortured. We don't even care about the election outcome or the failed process. We actually also don't care to say what we really think about this whole mess. All we care about is that Tsvangirai stays out of power and Mugabe and ZANU-PF in power". I'm sure that's not the case, but keeping silent is creating the space for such sentiments.

Now that is Namibia's and South Africa's right, but saying so will come at a high price: We will lose our credibility, and ANY ELECTIONS in our region will be regarded as mere theatre; as going going through the motions so to speak; and neither Namibia nor South Africa (nor any supporters fo the regime in Harare) can and should be trusted to do what is right and democratic, instead of what is politically expedient.

Botswana and Kenya are doing the right thing by not recognising the legitimacy of the regime. Will Namibia and South Africa do the right thing?