Quote of the week
Universal adult suffrage on a common voters roll is one of the foundational values of our entire constitutional order. The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts. In a country of great disparities of wealth and power it declares that whoever we are, whether rich or poor, exalted or disgraced, we all belong to the same democratic South African nation; that our destinies are intertwined in a single interactive polity.
August and Another v Electoral Commission and Others (CCT8/99) [1999] ZACC 3
Light entertainment from the Zimbawean Herald
Looking for news on the Zimbawean election I stumbled across the wonderfully entertaining website of the Zimbawean Herald, the state run newspaper. The editors of The Herald is obviously in denial about the election (and much else besides) as its main headline states that Zanu-PF and the MDC was in a photo finish for the House of Assembly.
The Herald stated that Zanu-PF had won 97 seats and the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC 99. But the Zimbawean Electoral Commission had actually officially announced that Zanu-PF had only taken 94 seats and the combined opposition 114.
My favourite article is the one claiming that the “British government and its prime minister, Gordon Brown, have now come out in the open as the real power behind the MDC Tsvangirai faction, demanding the release of the results of Zimbabwe’s elections that show an opposition victory.” Money Quote
Almost the entire British state machinery — from the BBC to its House of Commons — was almost going hysterical over the delay in announcing the election results by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission….
Given the intimate relationship between the global media structures, Western politics and the quest for world domination, analysts say this vindicates the view that what is at stake in Zimbabwe is far bigger than what the contestants, with the notable exception of those in Zanu-PF, realise.
A view vindicated by the conspicuous flow of many white former commercial farmers who trooped back into Zimbabwe once the MDC prematurely claimed victory. Some of them have headed to the farms where they threatened to evict newly resettled farmers particularly around Chegutu and Kariba, as many are coming through Chirundu Border Post.
Zimbabwe, the analysts say, represents the last frontier of resistance between the black nationalist struggle and Western neo-colonial encroachment under the guise of globalisation and the parochial discourse of democratisation.
No wonder the MDC won the election. Who can take such rubbish seriously? I also wonder who these “analysts” are that are quoted by The Herald? And note the claim that “almost” the entire Bristish state machinery was “almost” going hysterical. Those lovely creative writers at the The Herald should enlighten us on how a machinery “almost goes hysterical.
In any event, entertaining stuff. Pity one cannot believe a word of it.
UPDATE: My previous figures taken from The Guardian and Mail & Guardian sites were wrong and the Herald was actually correct. Here is a table with the final House of Assembly results:
