Zimbabwe: after Mugabe resigns

[davidbfpo]

Blessing-Miles Tendi (Oxford University) has a comment on the election result and the violence that followed in Harare. He ends with:

Zimbabwe’s election has divided its people, and this is not conducive to democracy. Zanu-PF’s two-thirds majority renders parliament – a cornerstone of any functional democracy – weak in relation to a president with disputed legitimacy. And Zimbabwe’s deep state – the military – will linger on, influentially, in the political background. Despite all the joy and the hope following Mugabe’s overthrow, in the aftermath of this election, Zimbabweans’ democratic dreams appear as distant as ever.

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/03/zimbabwe-election-result-disputed-army

Watching the limited footage it is very unclear why the Army had to be deployed, let alone why six people were shot dead. So much for an apolitical army that was promised a few months ago.

Professor Stephen Chan adds:https://theconversation.com/zimbabwe...on-era-101045?

There has been some coverage here, although none covered what was happening in the rural areas. The linked BBC report has the figures:

Figures released by the electoral commission say Mr Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF party won 50.4% of the presidential vote - ensuring by only 36,464 ballots that there did not have to be a run-off.
Chamisa tallied 44.3% of the almost five million votes cast, with the 21 other candidates taking up the remainder.
Results of the parliamentary election gave Zanu-PF 144 seats; the MDC Alliance, which is made up of seven parties, 64 seats...

Link:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45064231