Mugabe Holding Out?

Carla Neal/Apr.18 2:20pm/Democracy

In Zimbabwe this week the President of the country, Mugabe, had quite a bit to say in response to the UN’s steady questioning and accusations surrounding why the country has yet to announce the results of its March 29^th presidential elections. He claims that the reason the results have yet to be revealed is that the opposing party (MDC party) with the support of Britain has been threatening violence and riots and therefore, for the safety of the whole country, he has yet to release the results. The MDC Presidential candidate, who has also not heard the final results, says that the reason his party has been threatening is because some of the major members of the MDC party have been killed since the elections. Mugabe also went on record claiming that he is indeed a democratic leader and not the dictator the UN claims him to be. He says that he is working on trying to fulfill all the basic needs of his people and that it wasn’t until after the country got their independence from Britain, 30 years ago, that the country was able to act independently.

This election has been a concern of the UN for a while. I wrote on an article earlier that told of the President’s plan to let certain countries be in on the elections; however, certain western countries, Britain, the US, etc. would not be allowed to be involved because of their distrust of the President. To me it seems what is going on now, is the very type of thing that the UN did not wasn’t to see happen. This president has been there for the whole thirty years of independence and now that all the votes are in, he really doesn’t seem to want to give up control and he is now trying to take up time & get the backing he needs in order to stay in control. No matter what his reasons are for doing this, it is only making other countries doubt and mistrust this leader even more than they already do; and yes, it makes us question his democratic intentions.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iuleQs-Hteteq3WhA4Vm0nwTPHHA