Official: Mugabe wins re-election after opposition pulls out

Zimbabwe opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said Sunday he would not participate in Friday’s presidential runoff, provoking dismay from international observers and handing an apparent victory to President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change party decided to pull out of the vote because of violence and arrests targeting his party and its supporters. “A free and fair election is impossible,” Tsvangirai told reporters Sunday. “We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate … sham of an election process.”

It’s a real shame what’s happened in Zimbabwe. It’s potentially one of the most productive areas in Africa…but under the mis-rule of Mugabe, the country is verging on famine, and has an inflation rate that is so high and out of control (tens of 1000’s % OR MORE!) that there is literally no way to accurately determine it.