Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Inside Mugabe's violent crackdown: How campaign was conceived and executed by Zimbabwe's leader, aides
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) Container 
ContributorBrandonius Maximus 
Last EditedBrandonius Maximus  Jul 05, 2008 11:36am
Logged 0
CategoryGeneral
News DateSaturday, July 5, 2008 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionHARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe summoned his top security officials to a government training center near his rural home in central Zimbabwe on the afternoon of March 30. In a voice barely audible at first, he informed the leaders of the state security apparatus that had enforced his rule for 28 years that he had lost the presidential vote held the previous day.

Then Mugabe told the gathering he planned to give up power in a televised speech to the nation the next day, according to the written notes of one participant that were corroborated by two other people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

But Zimbabwe's military chief, Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the choice was not Mugabe's alone to make. According to two firsthand accounts of the meeting, Chiwenga told Mugabe his military would take control of the country to keep him in office or the president could contest a runoff election, directed in the field by senior army officers supervising a military-style campaign against the opposition.
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION