The poll that Bob stole

摘要

In zimbabwe, the thieves are in charge and their victims face prosecution. On March 13th, President Robert Mugabe was declared the winner of a nakedly crooked election. His challenger, Morgan Tsvangi-rai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDc), refused to accept the result. But Mr Mugabe's troops, armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades, took to the streets to deter protests and surrounded the MDC'S offices in Bula-wayo. And Mr Tsvangirai himself now faces a legal challenge, as the regime presses treason charges against him and two of his lieutenants. Of nearly 3m votes cast, Mr Mugabe won 1,685,212, or 56% of the total, excluding spoiled ballots. Mr Tsvangirai could only manage 1,258,401, or 42%; three minor candidates scooped the remainder. Mr Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), said their man won because voters liked his policy of seizing white-owned farmland and giving it to blacks, and also because they saw Mr Tsvangirai as a stooge of Britain, the former colonial power.