Via the BBC: Zimbabwe poll under fresh attack

Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe, who heads a troika of observer states, told the BBC mounting violence could make a free vote impossible.

Sadly, that is hardly a surprise. Indeed, it has been clear for some time that Mugabe and his allies have been trying to subvert the process to their own ends since the election (indeed, that has been their modus operandi since they took power years ago). What is interesting is that they seem to lack the wherewithal to actually just take over and be done with the increasingly farcical notion that the election matter. On the other hand, it does seem that they lack the actual power to do so, meaning that they think the opposition is too big to simply smash or Mugabe’s resources are more limited than he would like to demonstrate. It seems that he is banking on limping through this process with the clear belief that he can cling to power and use violence to terrorize the opposition, but only in a limited fashion (versus simply staging an obvious coup and arresting, killing of exiling the opposition in toto and being done with it).

Other stories from Zimbabwe:

• Via the BBC: A glimpse of Mugabe terror
• Zimbabwe activists’ bodies found
• Via the Independent/the AP: Mugabe’s opponents die in firebomb attack
• Via the Independent: Mbeki steps up pressure on Mugabe