Just thinking we should all say a few prayers for the people of Zimbabwe for the next few days. God grant them courage and wisdom. Hugh

Hugh, I am with you.

Yes! I second that!!!!

I'll be watching the news, not that it will tell us much.....

There has been very little violence, Mugabe has issued orders not to engage in violence. The intimidation and food-for-votes is still continuing.

The most courageous woman in Zimbabwe is Heather Bennett who is running for a parliamentary seat in place of her husband, Roy. Roy was a member of parliament and got into a shoving match with one of Mugabe's boys during a parliamentary debate. Roy is in prison doing hard labor for a "crime" that would normally be punished by a $15.00 fine.



Bennett Story


Free Roy Bennett website

Regards,

Terry

It is a brave person that stands up to a government in a dictatorship.

I sent some money and prayers to my friends in Zim.. for this election they are sending out watchers for the poles and the money is for the petrol to get them to and back...

Mike

When is the election scheduled for?

Jorge, March 31st

Mike

The Bennetts are very nice people. Meet them while they were on an Impala hunt last year. You have to admire Roys courage for lasting as long as he has in prison and Heather's for what she has been through and taking on ZANU-PF.

Recently their campaign lost a truck and a large sum of money. There is not much anyone can do for them at this point, but after the election there may be some payback from Mugabe.

If you visit Zimbabwe this year you may want to consider taking along medicines and other needs for residents that did not support ZANU-PF.

Lets hope by this time tommorrow there is a better Zimbabwe.

Thanks, Mike. OF COURSE *I* had to book for this year.....oh well, maybe things will remain calm. jorge

There is not a snowball's chance in hell that these so-called elections will be anything more than a sham.

Mugabe and his thugs will make sure of that.

Here's some interesting commentary on RSA's complicity:

PADRAIG O'MALLEY/BOSTON GLOBE –MARCH 30,2005
South Africa's failure in Zimbabwe
By Padraig O'Malley | March 30, 2005
JOHANNESBURG
PARLIAMENTARY elections will be held tomorrow in Zimbabwe in conditions that assure they will not be free and fair.
This is due to the systematic evisceration of every vestige of due process in Zimbabwe under the regime of Robert Mugabe, whose Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has ruled the country since 1980.
In 2000 the once invincible ZANU party lost some support to an emerging opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai in parliamentary elections that independent observers, with the exception of the African National Congress, pronounced neither free nor fair. In 2002 Mugabe narrowly beat Tsvangirai in a presidential election, pronounced neither free nor fair by most election observers, again with the exception of the ANC.
Since 2002 Mugabe has cracked down on political opposition, conducted a reign of terror against MDC supporters and party workers, expelled foreign journalists, and shut down the independent media. He has packed a once independent judiciary with hand-picked ZANU lackeys and used the courts to prosecute opponents on trumped-up charges. He has had Tsvangirai tried for treason (he was acquitted). The ZANU-controlled Parliament has passed laws that restrict freedom of association and assembly. Government-sponsored militias were sent into the countryside to intimidate, terrorize, and, if necessary, kill. With elections tomorrow, the electorate is unlikely to forget the likely consequences of voting the wrong way.
The people starve, in part because the land seized from white farmers in 2000 and thereafter was turned over to liberation war veterans, Mugabe cronies, an assortment of landless peasants, farm tenants, and party loyalists, few of whom can farm. In the country once regarded as the agricultural breadbasket of the sub-Sahara, the World Food Program estimates that about half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are at risk of starvation while Mugabe bans food aid, the better to use what food there is as a political tool.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch each issued a report that said the systematic human rights violations by the Zimbabwean government made free participation in the elections impossible.
Mugabe is in substantial breach of every election protocol of the Southern African Development Community, of which Zimbabwe is a member; he has failed to implement the recommendations of the African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights; he flouts international law, and he has banned the presence of observer teams from all countries and nongovernmental organizations that might conclude that the elections might not be free and fair (China qualifies, the European Union does not).
Rather than rebuke Mugabe for his crimes against his own people, South Africa assists in their persecution. When Zimbabweans, desperate for food and work, sneak their way into South Africa, they are incarcerated in the Lindela Repatriation Center, a prison that would put any apartheid-era prison to shame.
Sadly, black South Africans seem to have forgotten that all of Africa took them in and championed their cause, often at risk to themselves. Just weeks ago, President Thabo Mbeki pronounced, ''Nobody in Zimbabwe is likely to act in a way that will prevent free and fair elections being held" -- the blithe sentiment of the mightily unperturbed.
A mere 11 years ago, South Africa held its first free, fair, and nonracial elections, which brought 40 years of apartheid ignominy and 300 years of institutionalized racial discrimination to an end. It ushered in an era of democratic governance, with the ANC the lead actor. However, before the ANC would agree to elections in 1994, it insisted on a level political playing field. The actual casting of a ballot, the ANC well knew, is the next to final act in the process of a free and fair election, not the first. The world supported the demands the ANC made on the white minority government. It stood in solidarity, and across the globe people took to the streets on its behalf, on behalf of millions of black South Africans. It flooded the country with election observers from across the world to ensure free and fair elections.
The result is history, and South Africa has been eager to share the secrets of its success with other democracies in the process of transition.
Except with its next-door neighbor.
In the days ahead, the South African government's observers have a chance to redeem their country's honor, but few here are holding their breath.

Padraig O'Malley is a senior fellow emeritus at the McCormack Graduate School at UMass-Boston.

All it would take is one bullet to get the ball rolling ...... or a blood bath.

Here's opening a few more nails can be nailed in Robber's coffin today.

Good old Bob won the election. What a surprise!! I feel sorry for the poor Zimbabwe people.

AP reports that elcetion voting was peaceful; but there were of course some reports of voter intimidation (police entering the voting booths to watch votes). Results are not expected before Saturday. Looks like Mad Bob could be with us for a while.

The only result of the election will probably be the poor suckers that were seen voting for the opposition will be targeted and roughed up if not worse. And the communities that dare vote in numbers or actually elect someone from ZANU-PF will be mistreated and get no food aid and starve.

How is Mugabe's health? Any word?