HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe is ready to step down after he accepted he failed to win the country's presidential election, a senior source in his ruling party and diplomats told AFP Tuesday.
An official in Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said the long-ruling president was prepared to step down but was still trying to win agreement from the army's chief of staff Constantine Chiwenga.
"He is prepared to step down because he doesn't want to embarrass himself by going to a run-off," the source said on condition of anonymity.
"There is only one person still blocking him, the army chief of staff."
Two senior diplomats in the capital Harare meanwhile confirmed that a deal had been done for Mugabe to step aside in favour of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "Everything indicates that Mugabe will leave power smoothly," said one of the sources.
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In the conflict between the stone and the stream, the stream will always prevail. Congratulaltions to Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change. Today, you are the stream.

Somewhere, there's a pike just waiting for Mad Bob's syphillitic head.

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The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1

Its a very special occassion when Tanny and I agree on international news.

At last Mugabe bows to reason.

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

I've been following this on the BBC news. Unfortunately, he started off a the liberator of his countrymen, then became a tyrant. I suspect South Africa played a role in him stepping down and they were having a major problem with migrants from Zimbabwe entering the country, causing a lot of xenophobic tensions. Zimbabwe would've collapsed earlier if it was for so many people working in South Africa and England sending money back home to family. The crisis was also hurting financial confidence in other nearby countries.

Zimbabwe had insane unsustainable inflation for many years basically because Mugabe's corrupt ruling party kept printing money to pay bills. As the economy worsened he played to race based land redistribution projects that in turn caused catastrophic food shortages. It would be nice if Mugabe's departure was only about his heavy handed politics, but it was really the unbelievable economic hardship he wreaked on his people.

Last year the official inflation rate for Zimbabwe was 4,500%. In reality it was probably much higher. Mugabe blamed "greedy shopkeepers".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...03/wzim103.xml

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

Mugabeis guilty of disappearing, jailing, torturing, raping, starving and murdering his own people. Will he ever pay for his crimes against humanity?

Then again. Why Botha.

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I have legalised robbery. Called it a belief
I have run with the money. And hid like a theif
I have re-written history. With my armies and my crooks
Invented memories. I did burn all the books

Zimbabwe's Ruling Party Endorses Mugabe

The Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe AP) , President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party is indicating that it expects a presidential runoff in Zimbabwe.

The party says it would endorse Mugabe if it came to that.

Official election results have not yet been released. But the endorsement Friday confirms reports from independent observers that no candidate won enough votes in Saturday election to avoid a runoff.

The party's endorsement came after its top policy-making politburo met for five hours Friday.

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I have legalised robbery. Called it a belief
I have run with the money. And hid like a theif
I have re-written history. With my armies and my crooks
Invented memories. I did burn all the books

Congratulations on posting the biggest groaner of a pun I've read on Phillyblog in quite some time.

That one's so bad it's good.

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Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia
"Jazz and blogging are both intimate, improvisational, and individual -- but also inherently collective. And the audience talks over both." --Andrew Sullivan, "Why I Blog," The Atlantic, November 2008

Zimbabwe Veterans March in Show of Force
By ANGUS SHAW

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Hundreds of guerrilla war veterans who support President Robert Mugabe marched through the capital Friday, raising fears he might turn to violence to prolong his rule.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...7dKZQD8VR3QF00

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I have legalised robbery. Called it a belief
I have run with the money. And hid like a theif
I have re-written history. With my armies and my crooks
Invented memories. I did burn all the books

Yeah, it seems like rumors of Mugabe's peaceful aquiessence to the election results in Tanny's OP were greatly exaggerated. It looks like its going to be a rough ride, with Mugabe pushing for a run-off (though by adding up the results at each polling place its pretty clear that Movement for Democratic Change won enough to win outright). I presume the plan for the "runoff" is to stage it so Mugabe can "fix" the results to his liking.

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

Mugabe's Party Demands Zimbabwe Recount

By ANGUS SHAW
Associated Press Writer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- President Robert Mugabe's ruling party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of presidential election results, the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported, prompting outrage from the opposition party.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

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I have legalised robbery. Called it a belief
I have run with the money. And hid like a theif
I have re-written history. With my armies and my crooks
Invented memories. I did burn all the books