Tsvangirai pulls out of election

Tsvangirai pulls out of election
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence. Speaking only hours after his opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop "genocide" in the former British colony. "We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process," he told reporters in Harare. The MDC and Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot, have repeatedly accused government security forces and militia of strong-arm tactics to ensure a Mugabe victory in the June 27 poll.

This is the right thing for Tsvangirai to announce, his followers have been viciously and brutally treated during this painful election process which was only the latest obscenity Mugabe have wrecked upon his suffering country, the people have done all that they can do, this is now a situation that South Africa now has to move on and request Mugabe steps down and go into exile with members of his corrupt entourage and an emergency transition government announced with an eye to new elections, Tsvangirai couldn’t have done any more and to continue with this brutal farce risked the lives of his followers beyond levels acceptable for an outcome that will be rigged. This is now a problem for the international community and pressure must be put on South Africa to remove him.