Zimbabwe Election: The stolen ballots
By John Amato Friday Jul 04, 2008 8:00pm
via The Guardian:
Robert Mugabe's henchmen have long been suspected of stealing civil servant postal ballots. This GuardianFilms exclusive provides the first evidence of how they did it...
(h/t Kevin) Here are more stories about Mugabe.
Video secretly recorded by a Zimbabwean prison guard appears to show evidence of vote-rigging in the country's recent presidential runoff election.
The footage, shot with a secret camera provided by the British newspaper The Guardian, was posted on the paper's Web site Saturday. The paper said the guard had since fled the country with his family.
The video shows the guard being summoned along with other prison guards to an office at Harare's central jail days before the June 27 runoff between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangira...read on
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At least something like that could never happen in the good old USA. Oh, brave new world, with such people in it!
horrible what is going on down there from this really evil man
i feel so bad for the white farmers being murdered and having their land stolen by these thugs
And yet not even the UN does anything. All other nations ,well is there any oil in africa? Nah , just ice which is more important than life.
Heck of a job there world!
Is Zimbabwe in Florida or Ohio- I forget.
Straight from the Republican handbook.
What a tragedy of great proportions. There are so many dimensions to the suffering and the breakdown of the country. The thievery by the leadership is one. The corrupt nature of those in power, the violence. How does a country climb out of that hole?
Imagine my shock!
Who the Hell does Mugabe think he is? George W. Bush??
Friar Tuck @ 3:
The holdup in the UN is, as usual, China. China, which is a major ally of Mugabe (both economically and politically), is basically using the old saw "It's their problem, they have to fix it themselves." And since they hold veto power over sanctions, it seems unlikely for the UN to do anything beyond condemnations.
Won't we all have a good laugh when McCain wins. Not.
Any chance we could get the prison guard a job on the McCain camapign?
This is exactly the sort of 'democratic election' that the US has a long history of supporting.
Maybe Zimbabwe isn't ready for a Black President.
or
Newly elected President of Zimbabwe, President Bush, heralds the election as fair and honest and cannot wait to implement the capital he has gained with such an overwhelming victory.
What the hell. I hate to see people suffer. In this day and age, we should be able to do something about this. But no. American's ourselves are powerless. Christ. The UN is feeble.
The Guardian UK http://www.guardian.co.uk/ has been a mainstay of my news reading habits for several years.
Far superior to the American Corporate Press, both in international news coverage and in US news coverage.
Oh, so much to learn from a right wing neocon socalled democracy. They know how to steal an election.
Does this mean we need to suffer through another round of 'John Bolton hates the UN' on Fox News?
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s @ 16:
Does Billo have a fat head?
Hey Mug. You are a Coward and an Idiot of worldly proportions. A very very stupid person! Come and get us you cowardly swine. I would love to pass this thread on to the people of the country you live in. I am certain you are a person of sociopathic/psychotic means so this will not make any type emotional feeling from you. You have no worth, did you know that? I know this is hard to believe but you and your henchmen will not be of this earth in the very near future. And for what? Did it actually mean something, the torture and mutilation of innocent people? Now that you are gone, know what? People are getting back together with each other and solving problems together. You are the lowest of the low but in a while you'll be gone. Whew!
Jesus Christ the discussion is about Zimbabwe and everyone comments on the US election. [Deleted. Can the abuse. You aren't discussing the election in Zimbabwe, either. You are discussing the comments in the thread-Sitemonitor]
Jeanne @ 6:
Do you realize that you just described every 'government' on the planet?
Jeanne, you did not describe every government on the planet.
It would be nice to get a hidden cam into Diebold to see how they steal elections here. Or in the smoky back rooms at SCOTUS.
why does that remind me of
florida
and
ohio
?????????????
[Please quit bolding practically every comment you make-Sitemonitor]
Republicans here in the United States steal votes right before the citizen's eyes and no one cares about it. To complain would mean the Democrats would lose all their elections (according to Nancy Pelosi).
kerplunk @ 24:
Or maybe solving the problem would cause Nancy Pelosi to lose the primary.
Robert @ 21:
Really? Remove the violence and see if the so called "leadership" gets paid.
True story:
South Vietnam (mid-60's - early 70's)... illiterate housekeeper said she needed the day off to go vote
me: who you voting for?
hk: I don't know.
me: so why are you going to vote?
hk: if I don't go vote I can get in trouble because I need to get my ID punched - if I don't have the ID punched I can get in trouble.
Also the only candidate allowed to have a portrait on the ballot, and the top name on the ballot, was the canditate that was supposed to win.
Great way to rig a "democratic" election with a majority illiterate population
Robert @ 20:
Agree Robert, here is one of the worlds murdering despots getting away with the torture, starvation and killing of his own people, (sound like familiar former Iraq leader?) and the world does nothing because China votes no. Dont recall the US, Canada, Italy, Australia, Holland, Belgium etc etc taking any notice of a veto vote when the non existent WMD were the excuse to invade Iraq. Of course the difference here is the construction of the black material at stake. In Zimbabwe its black human beings, in Iraq black liquid. Sort of pin points the importance of human life as opposed to a black gooey stuff that oozes out of the ground.
Have to agree that the false equivalencies between what's going on in Zimbabwe and what is/has happened in the U.S. only makes us all look rather ignorant of political realities outside of the United States...not to mention it makes one look callous in the face of real suffering that the vast majority of Americans cannot even begin to comprehend. Let's get a little perspective, folks.
As far as Mugabe goes, he has decided to stay in power until he dies. Since he's made that decision, and decides that anyone who disagrees with him should "disappear," I won't shed one single fuggin' tear if the people of Zimbabwe try to accelerate the end of his term.
The US and the UK invaded countries that didn't need to be to enable the theft of oil. Meanwhile, they avoid invading countries that need to be invaded where human rights and democracy are under threat - namely, North Korea, Burma, Sudan, and now Zimbabwe.
If Gordon Brown had any decency, after the British left Iraq he would send them, in a coalition with South Africa's army, to invade Zimbabwe. Since Zimbabwe is still part of the commonwealth, technically the queen of England can order him to do it.
But we all know it will never happen. Markets and businessmen decide what countries to go after, not human decency.
At least they're honest enough to use old fashioned thuggery, instead of butterfly ballots and crooked Deibold voting machines.
Give that man a medal and a home!
Zachary at #29 said: Agree Robert, here is one of the worlds murdering despots getting away with the torture, starvation and killing of his own people, (sound like familiar former Iraq leader?)
While I'll agree that Saddam was a tyrant and deserved to be overthrown, he didn't kill nearly as many of his own citizens as the United States has in the last 16 years or so.
The embargo that was placed on Iraq after the first gulf war in 1992 killed an estimated 1 to 1 and half million people. Over half a million children died because of the desires of the leaders of the States and England to show Saddam who had the bigger balls.
In the present gulf war, there have been estimates of over a million dead and 2 or more million refugees.
Saddam maybe killed 15 or 20 thousand of his own people over the decades that he ruled Iraq. Remember also that he was the fair haired boy of the United States for years.
Mugabe is a tyrant and a murderous thug who deserves to be killed. I think though, if you look deep enough into who supports and arms his country you'll find that British or American or both are elbow deep in the blood and torment.
Chopvac @ 31:
If people like you would stop pretending that there were actual borders separating the land mass on this planet into 'countries' it would be impossible for any thugs to oppress anyone that doesn't want to be oppressed. How do you oppress someone who can just walk away from you?
It looks like Zimbabwe's elections are becoming as corrupt and meaningless as ours.
budda @ 2:
Yes, having "their" land stolen. You seem to forget just how those white farmers got that land in the first place, whose land it was before that, and how they held onto it via Smith and his ilk instead of negotiating with reasonable nationalist organizations in the 1960s when they had the chance. Also worth mentioning is that the rate of killing for white farmers in Zim (per 100k) was less than a third of what it is in South Africa, in large part because rural South Afican whites tended to be a bit more brutal about the way they treated labor.
The farmers actually bear a great deal of responsibility for enabling the situation: they dragged their feet using every trick in the book to avoid any meaningful restitution or redistribution of land, which is what rural people wanted. When Mugabe's power began to fade, he could easily make them into the "real problem" and raise the images and promises of Chimurenga to gain support for the really, really insane things he's done. He made the white farmers the enemy, and the rural people bought it because they were acting like the enemy. Yes, the land mostly went to Mugabe's cronies, and there are no inputs for small farmers, but that's not the point for Mugabe's base, and they sure as hell don't hear about that little fact.
South African farmers have been watching this carefully, because if they work to obstruct meaningful land reform, a Mugabe-type will certainly end up playing it the same way there (which is my current fear regarding Jacob Zuma). Mugabe became President but precious little changed, and frustrated, angry people are very easily manipulated by a demagogue.
Ann R Key @ 35:
Unfortunately in the current situation exit isn't a viable strategy, because it creates anger elsewhere (see the anti-immigrant violence in SA in May). It was viable when Africa was still exceptionally sparsely populated, but today if you want to make a living and survive you have to crowd other people. The removal of boundaries and controls would create entirely new problems that would not necessarily be less troublesome than the old.
It "appears to show" vote rigging?
Well thank you for showing the FUTURE OF AMERICA.
This is what we are heading for if we don't demand EVERY VOTE COUNTS AND NO MACHINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Bush is to claim that he did anything for Africa, he needs to act. But he won't.
Eventually, South Africa will reap the effects of a failed Zimbabwe. They are already absorbing a large number of refugees.
A UN or joint US/British/South African operation to oust Mugabe would be good thing President Obama.
And this is just the beginning. Did you know that Mugabe paid for Mbeki education. I do not think that Mbeki will ever stand up to Bob(Robert).
Africa is a land of beauty and sunshine but the people are jealous. The will kill you for R10 not even a Dollar/pound. And if you asked them why the did it. They will say " Because I can." If you think that is funny you should see our President. He waits after the Zim election to make a move. He never help in ensuring justice. And I excpect that the world step in against ZIM and South Africa and question the the current policies that is in place. WE WANT NEW LEADERS. There is no justice for white in South Africa and no justice at all in Zimbabwe.
Please help us...
Help you what #41? Kill an autocrat for what? So another can come along that is supported by the US/UK "financial hit men" like Mark Thatcher? Wake up. Africa has been targeted since Kissinger for depopulation by the US/UK elites and their mercenary henchmen. Yes, Mugabe is bad, but do you want an Idi Amin?
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