'Hey Mugabe, what's taking so long?!'

Last Modified: 31 Mar 2008
By: Channel 4 News

With hard facts out of Zimbabwe at a premium, the blogosphere is playing a central role in disseminating news and views across a country on the brink of a potentially historic election results.

Here is just a taste:

A blogger called Dad was up posting at 1.08am this morning to mark the end of the election silence.

It was 11.25pm on Sunday evening, he noted, when Justice George Chiweshe from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission finally made an announcement.

'Maybe someone should tell him that we all know that they were playing for time while the government decided how to convert a massive defeat into a comfortable win?'
Blogger Dad

"Through his arrogant and over-extended explanation, he attempted to defend his commission's almost total blackout of information for the last 12 hours. He confirmed that the ZEC would only start announcing the official results at 6 am on Monday morning, 31st March - with the qualification - 'if they had been received'.

"Maybe someone should tell him that we all know that they were playing for time while the government decided how to convert a massive defeat into a comfortable win?"

Bev Clark writing Kubatana.net began her day with this:

"So I'm sitting here in Harare on Monday morning wondering what it exactly was that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) intended to gain from their two weekend victory press conferences.

"Yes, their announcement got a lot of international news coverage, not local. And I'm sure it put Bob on the back foot. But what now?

Three of the best: Channel 4 News coverage

A selection of our coverage over the last 12 months:

Trying to flee Zimbabwe
22 Mar 2007 Foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller with the people smugglers on the South African / Zimababwe border.

Lifting the lid on Zimbabwe's brutality
18 Apr 2007 A former henchman of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe tells Channel 4 News of the brutality meted out under the repressive regime.

Brown avoids Mugabe in Lisbon
8 Dec 2007 Report includes exclusive footage, obtained by Channel 4 News, of President Mugabe speaking at the funeral of a brigadier his regime is accused of killing.

"What is the MDC waiting for . . . the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's "official" results which everyone is suspicious of? It seems odd to temper a wonderfully audacious move (claiming victory) with the predictable path of comparing results."

Independent candidate Michael Laban writing on the same blogging network is 'celebrating' his own election defeat. His post is called 'Out of it!'.

"I am well satisfied.

"Now, having said that, let the politician take over. I really mean I am satisfied with things so far. They are all as predicted. And I should not really be satisfied, because I lost. Not just lost, but LOST.

"First point, all signs lead to a MASSIVE Zanu PF loss. Lost MPs include Chinamasa (Minister of 'justice'), Chombo (Minister of home affairs, the one who illegally fired us Councillors), Elliot Manyika (the Zanu PF Political Commissar, the biggest thug, the chief, 'enforcer', who it seems cannot enforce his own backyard), and Zanu PF lost in Zvimba, home of our beloved President. (If our beloved President's party cannot win in his backyard!)."

Still Here wants to know 'What's taking so long...?!'.

"ZEC has not announced anything since 7.30am. What are they up to? What plots are they hatching?

"People have gone to work, life is back to "normal" but is it? Nobody knows what the reaction will be if and when ZEC announces Zanu PF victorious."

Meanwhile, This is Zimbabwe is in full election results mode carrying local results and translating them into a national picture, complete with colour-coded bar charts. According House of Assembly is split 12:12 with 24 regions counted.