Good News In Zimbabwe?

In one of Africa's most tyrannical "democracies", Zimbabwe, the now hated Robert Mugabe era is about to end. And, unlike so much of the rest of the continent, without a shot but the result of an election.
Mr. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, with an iron fist since the white government collapsed and a deal was cut with Great Britain for the black majority to rule their land. Mr. Mugabe was the head of the ZANU-PF army that fought the white government of former Prime Minister Ian Smith. Then Rhodesia was recognized by few nations and was all alone in fighting black rebels seeking to wrest control from Mr. Smith. Eventually, Great Britain stepped in, put in a black provisional government and the government changed the name of the nation to Zimbabwe, the capital from Salisbury to Harare. Then there were elections in 1980. Then, Robert Mugabe won the election and has not looked back.
Mr. Mugabe has ruled with an iron fist. Sure, he let the appearance of a democracy for international consumption. But, there was the hidden hand of the armed forces and the police, personal fiefdoms for Mr. Mugabe and his minions.
Mr. Mugabe continued to "win" elections and the ZANU-PF party dominated the parliament. But, events happened that hastened the beginning of the end for Mr. Mugabe.
South Africa went from a white-only government to a multi-racial one. Nelson Mandela was released from prison and eventually was elected president of South Africa. That took away a propaganda tool of the Mugabe regime.
Then in 2000, Mr. Mugabe started making trouble for the few white Zimbabweans left and owned farms. Mr. Mugabe sent henchmen to intimidate the farmers and allowed squatters to occupy their land, based on nothing but age-old possibilities of those squatters maybe had rights to the land. That began setting the already tenuous economy on an incredible downhill spiral that may take a very long time for this troubled land to recover.
And in 2004, the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, gave Mr. Mugabe a run for his money and may have actually won the presidential election that year. But, Mr. Mugabe, the armed forces and police and the judiciary all under his thumb, made sure that the real results did not occur. In fact, Mr. Tsvangirai was jailed.
And now, Mr. Tsvangiri may have the last laugh.
According to Fox News Channel http://FoxNews.com, the MDC has won the majority of seats in parliament. The MDC has 105 seats to Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF's 93 and an independent candidate one seat. There are 11 outstanding and even if the ZANU-PF wins them all, they will not have the majority. And, according to MDC spokesman Tendai Biti, Mr. Tsvangiri has 50.3% to Mugabe's 43.8% and the rest to other candidates. If that holds and there are no shenanigans by the loyalists to Mr. Mugabe, it is all over.
And, those loyalists may be shrinking. Many police and members of the armed forces are rag tag and hungry. Of course that is because there is only 80% unemployment and inflation a mild 500,000% http://latimes.com . And many members of the armed forces and police do not have the means to get from location to location. And they do not have crisp new uniforms. Many are threadbare.
All of that makes it amazing that this once prosperous nation would even have 43% of its people vote for this Mugabe thug. But, maybe they did, maybe not.
A change in leadership can bring about other change that may restore this nation to prosperity and true democracy.
And it will be a welcome for South Africa and the west. Having an unstable Zimbabwe is an opening for the radical Islamics to spread their money and promises to a desperate people. Yes, this would be a major win for the good guys in the War Against Islamofacist Terror.
Now, the west needs to stand firm and for the new president, Morgan Tsvangirai and the people of Zimbabwe.