I really don’t know what to write about MDC’s decision not to contest Friday’s run-off - they really were between a rock and a hard place, but with so much already endured by their supporters I would have thought they’d see the process through, regardless of how the odds were stacked against them.  Tsvangirai is [...]

Not that they really had any choice - it was either take part, of hand Bob a “legitimate” victory on a silver platter. The text of Morgan Tsvangirai’s speech announcing the MDC’s decision to take part is below the cut.
They’ve set pre-conditions, including free access to foreign observers & media and an SADC ‘peacekeeping’ [...]

So the fully-fiddled results are in - Tsvangirai 47.9%, Mugabe 43.2%, Makoni 8.3%, Towungana 0.6%. No-one really believes that they’re the accurate results, but they’re the ones we have to work with. The newly-reunited MDC now faces a tricky decision:
- Boycott the run-off in the name of saving the lives of their supporters [...]

So yesterday’s “historic announcement” was confirmation from both Morgan Tsavngirai and Arthur Mutambara that the two MDC factions were to reunite - if I was being picky, I’d point out that it’s hardly ‘historic’ to return to the party’s starting point, but it’s significant in that it gives the MDC an overall majority in the [...]