Editorial: A stolen victory would finally damn Mugabe | Comment is free | The Observer
When Zimbabwe’s opposition party meets in Harare tomorrow, it faces the most critical decision of its nine-year existence. In the months leading up to this week’s presidential run-off election, the Movement for Democratic Change has seen supporters brutalised, raped and murdered. They can be sure that more lives will be lost before the polls close, so should they pull out of the race?
Aborting the campaign may halt, at least temporarily, the bloodletting. It would also send a clear signal of protest against the manifest illegitimacy of the poll; after all, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai almost certainly won the first round outright. But pulling out would deny Zimbabweans the opportunity to punish President Robert Mugabe at the ballot box. That expression of dissent, however futile in a rigged election, is one of their few remaining rights.
Meanwhile, This Is Zimbabwe is calling on South Africans to print out flyers for VoteZim.com to be handed out to all Zimbabweans they know who may need information about safely getting home to vote.
