Top stories from DAWNS Digest
The Most Likely Outcome of Today’s Zimbabwe Election
Zimbabweans go to the polls today. “The opposing sides, as usual, are represented by President Robert Mugabe of the ZANU-PF party in one corner, with Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister in the coalition government and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T), in the other. Captivating to some, and confusing to many, this political fight between the two old rivals will not only mark the end of the tumultuous transition period that was hastily put together in the aftermath of the bloody elections of 2008, but is also certain to be the last match-up for these two arch enemies…The third scenario is ZANU-PF retaining political power either through a genuine win or manipulation of the electoral outcome. To date, all evidence points to this scenario being the most likely.” (Think Africa Press http://bit.ly/19vekar)
The Most Likely Outcome of Last Sunday’s Mali Election
Mali’s former PM Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is poised to win. “With about a third of the ballots in Sunday’s election counted, Keita, 69, “has a wide lead over the other candidates,” colonel Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, Mali’s interior minister, told reporters in Bamako. He said the “differences are significant” and if they continue there will not be a second round on August 11. He also expects the vote-counting to be completed on Wednesday at the latest. Although there were 27 candidates, analysts characterised the election as a two-horse race. Keita was seen as the frontrunner ahead of Soumaila Cisse, 63, a former finance minister and erstwhile chairman of the Commission of the West African Economic and Monetary Union. (FoxNews http://fxn.ws/18LzvCd)