[Pak Daily Times] Zim-bob-wean President Bob MuggsyMugabe
Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
appears to have caved in to regional pressure to delay key elections, but analysts warn the veteran ruler could yet forge ahead with the polls without making key reforms.
Last week Mugabe swept aside considerable opposition, mustered all the powers of the presidency and declared Zim-bob-we's elections will be held July 31. In doing so he plunged the country into a fresh political crisis, with long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai vowing to veto any unilaterally declared poll date.
But within a week Mugabe was looking less than omnipotent.
Southern African leaders -- fearing Mugabe was hurtling Zim-bob-we toward another flawed election, yet more violence and another political and economic meltdown -- stepped in. In an unusual public rebuke of their old comrade, leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) demanded Mugabe push back the election date.
SADC leaders said time must be given to introduce reforms that would make the elections free and fair, or at least allow a vote that would not derail their own plan to stabilise Zim-bob-we, which has been half a decade in the making.
Dumisani Nkomo, a Bulawayo-based independent political analyst said Mugabe got the message loud and clear.
"Mugabe is under pressure to ensure elections which will be credible and acceptable to SADC," Nkomo said. "This means if Mugabe decides to go ahead with the elections on July 31, the results won't be accepted by SADC."
But many observers see Mugabe's request to the constitutional court for a two-week delay until August 14 as necessary, but not sufficient to ensure a fair vote.
"There is no guarantee that the two weeks will be granted by the court," said Takavafira Zhou, a political scientist at Masvingo State University.
Rights groups and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have already accused the government of lodging an application to the consitutional court that was intended to fail.