[EM] Zimbabwe

Mon Mar 18 16:18:03 PST 2002

>> You believe that Morgan Tsvangirai is a thug???

All I said was that I have not read anything about his party, except that
they oppose Mugabe. The recent Bloomberg newswire peice on the subject was
where I got the 56-42 numbers and the 33 dead. In fact, the story lists 33
dead for the entire year.

Yes, much of the American media sucks, however, Bloomberg newswire, relied
on, as it is, by bond traders and international currency speculators, is
usually very on top of international crisis situations.

They could well be wrong.

They had an article about voting today, actually, I wrote the author a short
note. I've had a couple notes I've sent to Bloomberg authors turn into
corrections before.  :)

>From the bloomberg Newswire (Mar 18, 4:03PM)

                                                               Page 1  of 1

BN  16:03 San Francisco to Adopt Instant Runoffs for Elections, AP Says

     San Francisco, March 18 (Bloomberg) -- San Francisco has

become the first major city to adopt instant runoffs for almost

all the city's municipal races, Associated Press reported.

     At present, if no candidate for a city office wins more than

50 percent of the vote, a runoff is held weeks or months later

between the top two candidates. The new system would avoid the

second round of balloting by allowing voters to rank candidates at

their first, second and third choices, AP reported.

     Some opponents have criticized the plan, which was approved

by San Francisco voters on March 5, as undemocratic and confusing,

AP said. Supporters say it will open the political process to more

outsiders and save money because runoffs cost taxpayers about

$1.6 million each, AP said.

     The process will be used for most city offices, including

mayor, sheriff, treasurer, district attorney, public defender and

board of supervisors, AP said. The candidate with the least number

of votes will be eliminated. Then the second choices of voters

would be added to the tallies of remaining candidates, and the

process repeated until a winner emerges, AP reported.

(AP 3-18)

For the Associated Press, see {NWAP <GO>}.

--Samantha Zee in the San Francisco newsroom, (415) 743-3583 or

szee at bloomberg.net. Editor: Reichl.

Story illustration: For a U.S. political summary, see

{POLS <GO>}.

NI ELECT

NI POL

NI GOV

NI LAW

NI GEN

NI US

NI CA

NI SUM

#<70547>#

-0- (BN ) Mar/18/2002 21:03 GMT

-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Simmons [mailto:bbadonov at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 10:46 AM
To: election-methods-list at eskimo.com
Subject: [EM] Zimbabwe

>> From: "Narins, Josh" <josh.narins at lehman.com>
>> Subject: RE:Zimbabwe [EM]

>> >>>> However, I really don't know who the MPDC (the opposition)
>> >>>> was.

>> >> MDC.  Movement for Democratic Change.

>> I knew that much. What I don't know is what they stand
>> for, or, what sort of backgrounds their leaders have. Who
>> funds them? Are they just another band of thugs, who
>> happen to the illegal victims of political suppression?

No.

>> None of these questions have even been approached in the
>> articles I have read in the Economist, Bloomberg.com, or
>> in any media I've seen.

You will never find out the facts about it in the American
Press.  There are a lot of things you'll never find out about
in the American Press.  One of the benefits of the Internet
is that it is finally easy for Americans to read the foreign
press.

>> Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's opposition leader, under house
>> arrest for many years now, earned the Nobel Peace Prize.
>> Could her MDC counterpart come close?

While Tsvangirai is certainly very courageous, and is a saint
compared to Mugabe, he's not likely to win the Nobel Peace
Prize because the issue in Zimbabwe is not war.

>> The advantages of trading one band of thugs for another is
>> limited.

You believe that Morgan Tsvangirai is a thug???

>> For the record, there was a lot more violence in the 1982
>> Guatemala election than in Zimbabwe in 2002, and the
>> entire US establishment couldn't crow enough how wonderful
>> things had become with election in Central America.

Seems totally irrelevant to the question of whether Mugabe
is a tyrant.

>> This time, the winner is not the rest of the world's
>> choice, and 33 dead and a very large margin of victory (56
>> to 42) is insufficient.

There are a lot more than 33 dead.

As I recall, Mugabe got 52%.  There was massive documentation
that the election was stolen.  Ballot boxes were stuffed
(there's proof).  So many polling places were eliminated in
Harare and other MDC strongholds that there were huge lines
of people who couldn't vote when the polls closed.  The army
(under the direct control of Mugabe) was deployed at the
polls with instructions to help voters cast votes.  There's
no doubt that in a fair election, Mugabe would have lost by a
huge landslide.  He barely won the last one, and he has
become hated by the populace since then, yet the official
numbers show that his percentage of the vote increased.
Right.

>> Historically, we complain about elections where we don't
>> like the result, and ignore election irregularities where
>> we do.

I'm not speaking for "us".  I'm saying what _I_ think, which
is that Mugabe is a tyrant who stole and election.

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