Democracy in Zimbabwe

I've pretty much worn out the "Democracy in dark countries" title, so will confine myself here to the (almost) darkest of the dark*. That would be Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, formerly Southern Rhodesia, in southern Africa.

Zimbabwe has been ruled since its independence in 1980 by Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the only head of state in the world other than North Korea's Kim Jongil to call himself "Comrade". Comrade Bob was elected in 1980 to serve as prime minister under the figurehead president Canaan Banana. (One of the first laws passed by the new black government was an act making it an offence to poke fun at the president's name.)

A couple of years later, disgruntled that a Banana was living in State House, Bob had the constitution amended to abolish the offices of prime minister and president, replacing Mr. Banana and himself with, errr, himself.

Comrade Bob has been happily (for him) ensconced in State House ever since, pausing every 5 years or so to hold an election which he always won...until 2008. Then, through a failure of the frigging in the rigging, the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, got a plurality of the votes. But not quite 50%.

So it was decreed that there should be a run-off, just as in Haiti. Mugabe won the second round -- not a big surprise since Mr Tsvangirai declined to run again, fearing state-orchestrated violence against himself and his supporters.

As a sop to the opposition, and to put a little shine on his much-tarnished victory, Comrade Bob revived the office of prime minister, and declared that Mr Tsvangirai could sit in that chair, just far enough away as to be unable to get his hands on the levers of power.

Bob has now tired of playing that game and wants to have fresh elections not later than this coming June. The machinery of oppression is being cranked into high gear even now, with opposition supporters being arrested on trumped-up charges, incarcerated, tortured and, yes, murdered.

Not surprising, then, that support for the opposition party has dropped from 55% to 38% in recent polls. Support for the ruling party as increased from 12% to 17%. Let's see. 17% plus 38% equals 55%. And the rest? Following a campaign of terror in which some 200 people were killed and 1000s beaten up or tortured, more than 40% of voters refused to express any opinion, one way or another.

Few dare hope (out loud, at least) that the next election will bring any change. The Pope is still Catholic. Bears still shit in the woods. And Comrade Bob is still in power. Zimbabwe -- land of no surprises.

* Competition for the soubriquet "darkest of the dark countries" would be fierce, but the winner today would likely be the so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo. And that's only because Somalia can hardly be considered a country.