The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Friday released results of the presidential election held on March 29 which show that there was no outright winner.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 47, 9 percent of total votes cast (1 195 562 votes), followed by the incumbent President Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF with 43, 2 percent or 1 079 730 votes.
Independent candidates Simba Makoni and Langton Towungana garnered 8, 3 percent or 207 470 votes and 0, 6 percent or 14 503 votes respectively.
There were 39 975 spoilt papers with the percentage poll standing at 42, 7 percent.
ZEC chief elections officer, Lovemore Sekeramayi told journalists at a press briefing that a presidential run off would be held since no candidate got an outright majority of 51 percent or more.
“Since no candidate has received a majority of the total number of valid votes cast, the provisions of Section 110 (3) of the Electoral Act do apply and a second election shall be held at a date to be advised by the Commission,” he said.
He said President Mugabe and Tsvangirai, being the top two candidates, were eligible to participate in the second election.
ZEC had on Thursday called the candidates or their chief election agents for verification and collation of figures.
President Mugabe, through his agent, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Makoni compared their figures with the Commission while the MDC T indicated that their figures did not tally with those of ZEC.
But on Friday, the MDC Tsvangirai representative Chris Mbanga said he had not been given a chance to verify the figures.
“We are not happy. I was denied an opportunity to verify the figures,” he said.
“They (ZEC) wanted to place the burden of proof on us but then it not for us, it’s for them to prove to us how they arrived at the figures,” he said, adding he would report the matter to his superiors.
This was an express recount considering that ZEC was conducting a forensic verification recount. A forensic process going through 3million plus ballots could easily have taken more than 2 years. Bravo to ZEC for expediting this forensic recount where Morgan had claimed that a crime had occurred.
The next election will be a hopeless one all together. The people of Zimbabwe will be left to choose between a raging dictator and a western puppet. What a choice. If it was me, i would boycott because non of these two (Morgan & Bob) are capable of running the country properly. Its either you choose someone who is going to beat you or choose someone who is going to sell you. What a choice, i feel sorry for the people of Zimbabwe.
#2 It’s better to vote for the guy whose not a dictator. Atleast, there’s a chance that your basis of classifying him as a potential seller of you may just be the dictator’s propaganda and he’ll certainly won’t rape your life in the name of fighting off influence of the west. Besides, you have a chance of voting out the none dictator. The problem here is the none dictator is not as sharp as the dictator in question. Mugabe’s sharp guy, I’ll give him that. Frankly I don’t see the none dictator winning the run-off elections. Like I said, the dictator’s damn sharp dude! He’s already done his ground work, and will this time probably not need rigging.
Democrays has failed us Africans.The whims & caprices of African rulers shall forever be used against its inhabitants.
#4
Democracy has not failed us, democracy just came too late for us Africans hence we have not yet discovered a way to perfect it. African democracy is at its early stages. I’ll give you an example of Botswana/Namibia which embraced democracy since independence. There economies are there for everyone to see. In the case of Zambia like most african countries, we started with one party system where presidents ruled for a long time. That was a factor with African economic recession.
Zimbabweans have a choice to make … continue with the current economic malaise or have some one with fresh ideas to turn the economy around. This bulls*#% (excuse my french) of blaming the country’s failure on the British needs to stop;28 years after independence and you still blaming the colonials? Forcefully done land re-distribution to unskilled and overzealous freedom fighters cannot be blamed on the colonials. The Liberians had a run-off election and they chose wisely, I expect the Zimbos to do the same, unless they are content with having their women parade the streets of Livingstone!
One has to wonder just what it would take to make Mugabe realise his time is up, a bullet in the head like Kabila? I agree with some of the sentiments here though, none of these two candidates, Mugabe or Morgan are suitable. Morgan is a stinking sell-out while Mugabe will just drive the country further into economic and political despondency. It was like the choice presented to the ANC, Thabo and Zuma, both hopeless creatures that Shaka would have assegaid for gutless stupidity had he been alive today.
#3, My fear is, since africans have a “pegmentationless-skin-is-superior” syndrome when trying Mugabe (if at allhe will be) for the past offences (if at all all of them are his), I am pretty sure Tsvangirai will ask the Chinese courts (in China) to try him. So, I totally agree with #2 that our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters don’t have a choice. Put it this way #3. Suppose you a father and sadly thieves break into your house. After packing all your belongings and before they leave, they ask you whether to rape your 15 or 16 year old daughter. Could you really say they have given you a choice?
Mbeki ni imbwa he is the causer of all this mess.How i wish shaka zulu would have hooked his ass with a barbed wire.
bashi bubble
mwasosa mdala.
The problem is the people themselves,how to you even give the ***** some votes.
Uncle Robert,
Do not think that you, alone, fought for independence in Zimbabwe. Most of those people, if not all, that you have choosen to give a hard time were with you all the way. Today you decide to throw them out because of your selfish mind. You mean you are so thick-headed that you have now failed to think beyond your nose?
Shame be upon you Mugabe. I have even lost the little respect that I had reserved for you.
#2 Crazy Zambian has a valid point when he mentions that both Mugabe & Tsvangiri have major weaknesses. Mugabe retains the sympathy of most freedom fighters in Africa simply because most of these guys cannot bear the pain of betraying their own blood by supporting the colonialists on this one. They know Mugabe is playing dirty but the African elders will not disown their son just like that, no way. On the other hand this Tsvangiri’s biggest weakness is that he is a western agent. It is telling that despite the seriously harsh conditions there in Zim he managed less than 50% of the ballot. This to me does not really indicate popularity at all.
The way forward is to form a coalition govt. However Mugabe should step out of the picture and should instead recommend someone capable to take his seat in the coalition Govt. ZANU-PG can proceed to choose a leader based on this recommendation. Since parliament is split 50-50 it only makes sense that they do this. Tsvangiri can assume the presidency but he will find his powers circumscribed by the coalition structure so that he will not be able to freely feast on Zim with his western friends. This seemed to be the initial course of action immediately after the first election count but it seems the service chiefs got jittery and decided to go to plan B instead…
When will the MDC stop crying foul? before the election date, they were crying of vote rigging and no one had cast a vote. Zimbabwe election is far mor credidle than what we had that usshered in the current Government in Lsk. Imagine if all the results were being pasted outside the polling booth. Icibumba ngakalilila.
mugabe married a young star his grand daugher s age and this z what z making him to feel he z youth .he has subjected zimbambweans to b slaves of poverty in their own country OLD WITCH ITS TIME TO PACK YO BAGS EN GO BACK TO THE LAND pave way to young ones viva MDC YOU WON THOSE ELECTIONS go to prophet TB JOSHUA FRM NIGERIA HE Z GOING TO TEL WHO WAS INVOLVED IN RIGGING
Democracy is dictatorship.
#4 and #5 we have no practical democracy in Africa, we are yet to implement the democratic countries. jst look at the definition of democracy. Do you know what it means fron its entymology? Do the voices of the remote people heard in African politics. Africa for your own information is in Oligharch type of politics and not democracy.
i wonder what will happen if mogan boycots the rerun? can some one foretell.
If Morgan boycots the run then it gives Bob a right to continue to be be the captain of the sunken ship, too bad or good? God knows!!
# mate what type of a name is that?
#19 mate what type of a name is that?
# 13 Mulilo,That morgan was not popular in zim circles since h e failed a 50%, well, I tend to hold a different view on this becz even now there is too much intimidation in zim. If Bob’s form of govt was tranparent, it would have given morgan an outright victory.In short, its not easy to defeat a govt like Bob’s which is full of *****s.
Secondly, Morgan shld Just come out of the shell and start campaining. From the look of things, there is absolutely nothing that will prevent zim from going aheard with the re-run. Bob is a zealot and his state machinery is in his favour. As it is now, no one coughs or they face the consequences. I pity you my fellow africans.
Morgan is thugish too. Zim is simply lacking leaders. Best would be Robert steps down and let one of his old men run against those MDC puppets. I support Bob not to handle over that country to those MDC noise makers.
#8, The problem with your reasoning that Zim have no choice is that you base it on an accusation ‘that MDC will sell Zim’ coming from Bob’s propaganda machine.It’s not yet proven.Bob’s stance on Zim is alright.But he rapes his own people.Gadaffi, for instance, is a Dictator.But he doesn’t rape his own people.He cares for them and thus remain so popular such that even the west have failed to turn them against him.Have you ever heard of a Libyan asylum seeker? Bob’s the kind of leader that will facilitate thieves to come into my house and force me, as you put it, to make a choice between raping my 15 or my 16 yr old daughter.My best defence is to make sure such a person never asumes that power
Morgan campaigned for Sanctions against Zimbabwe and even asked Australia to expel all Zimbabwean students studying their whose parents are not MDC.
Why is he trying to champion the plight of the people he helped cripple with hunger today?
We all new the result from Independent Monitors who said a re-run was inevitable.
Why the desperation.
#25, that’s a point these blind can’t see, just making noise and tapping smoke instead of fire. Get the facts right instead of hiding in the “foolishness” of your model!
#25
Morgan is a puppet. He proves it in the things he is doing/has done.
1. A reporter asked him if he has accepted British money, and he agreed that he has accepted British govt money.
2. Morgan says, “i can bring back this economy to greatness, i have a lot of FRIENDS IN THE WEST”.
3. White farmers are going back to Zim claiming back there land and threatening the current farmers that AFTER THE MDC WINS, THEY WILL GET BACK THERE FARMS. They are camping outside there old farms right now.
What more evidence should we bring on the table to show you that Morgan is a puppet. Right now, Zim has no proper leader. Its either a dictator or puppet, take your pick.
#28 Indeed Zim has no proper leader, but the choice they have is not between a dictator and a puppet, but rather between a TYRANT and a puppet.The definition of Puppet in your context is circumspect.I bet you’d not have called Tva a puppet had his finances come from China as well, had he promised national rebuilding contracts to China, or had Mugabe’s propanganda machine not misled you into thinking the West are the only puppetuers.A Tyrant has no place in today’s politics.It’s because of such persons that puppets appear to be heros, for anything that delivers people from terror is welcome!Infact Bob’s to blame for sell of Zim for he’s made Zim desperate enough to accept UK & US money.
By calling Tshangarai a puppert of the west, you have all succumbed to uncle bob’s rhetoric aka brain washing.This guy is a genuis, he can brain wash even the neighbors, not only zimbos. And again I ask, what will take zimbos to be pissed-off with this dictator?
Why am I not surprised?
fake results .Viva Tsvangirai
Shame Mugabe. Retire in Peace
Mugabe has no brain.He is too old.Why can’t he just retire in peace like other leaders do?Shame upon you Mugabe!!
I guess it’ll be hard for Tsvangirai to win the second round coz this old man shall try his best tricks to ensure that he remains in power.Too bad for Zimbambwean people.Tsvangirai won 29th march elections.God gonna punish you Mugabe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mugabe waba amabolo insofi nangu inkumba, how old are u yama? Ala pa Africa mulatusebanya,icicine eco nkabwelela, kusukwa wa chinjako ukutontonkaya kwabantu nga ci Mugabe.
Mugabe has lost touch with the reality on the ground (bad economic policies and an unplanned land distribution have crippled Zimbabwe not some grand Western conspiracy), has no respect for the human rights of the very people he liberated- its a classic example of the old saying “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and no comtemplation of a future after he’s gone(his actions suggest he thinks he is the country of Zimbabwe). Morgan on the other hand has come to represent the voice of reason but does the fact that he is supported by the West mean he is a puppet? I would like to hear evidence supporting this assertion because many have mentioned it in the above comments.