Zimbabwe vote result announcement halted

CNN:

Zimbabwe's government has again delayed officially announcing results of the weekend's elections, raising fears of vote-rigging as security forces patrolled the streets.

An electoral commission official abruptly stopped the long-awaited televised announcement early Monday after results of just 24 of 210 parliamentary races were read.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was one of the ruling party lawmakers who lost his seat to the opposition, journalists in Zimbabwe told CNN. The government did not announce results from the presidential vote count.

Noel Kututwa, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said the delay was "fueling speculation" that Mugabe's government was tampering with the ballot count. His group is monitoring the election.

"This is very worrying," Kututwa said.

Even before the first results were announced, the major opposition party insisted it had won enough votes to end President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule over the southern African country that is suffering from economic meltdown.

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There are two possible reasons for the delay. First, the Zimbabwe government is so incompetent it can't account for the result of the vote and second that Mugabe is trying to find a way to steal the election. In Zimbabwe, both reasons are credible, but the latter is the more likely. Mugabe is a man who has tried to revoke the law of supply and demand. It would not be surprising that he would try to revoke the results of an election. It is hard to imagine that he could win a fair election. He has ruined the country with his despotic rule and no one in their right mind would vote for the man.