More indication that Zim's election is being negotiated.

At the moment, at least, it appears that my prediction regarding how a brokered election in Zimbabwe would go is headed for coming true. I said the first step would be:

The Zimbabwean government will announce bogus returns which show Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party narrowly losing. Thus they will give control to the Movement for Democratic Change but only narrowly to preserve Mugabe’s ego as much as possible.

Exit polls, unofficial results from polling places, and all non-government media sources had Mugabe losing by a two to one margin. Now the BBC reports that the parliamentary vote was a close one with 99 seats for the opposition MDC and 97 for Mugabe’s party. So from losing two to one they amazingly ended up with almost 50% of the seats. I smell a brokered deal.

I suggest that it is possible that these “official” results are Mugabe letting the opposition know that he is serious in working out a face-saving (and neck-saving) deal. This sends a sign to the MDC to agree to the next step in the fraudulent election. Mugabe will lose the presidency but just barely. He will make his grand departure speech fraudulently claiming that he always supported the will of the people -- the people he tortured, attacked, killed and starved.

Part of the deal would require the MDC’s promise not to prosecute the thugs and killers that Mugabe had running the Zimbabwean dictatorship. Mugabe will sit in one of palaces for awhile and then I suspect the South African government will make his some sort of “offer” which requires his presence in South Africa. Mugabe will be off to his new digs where he will live out his retirement free from the prosecution he desesrves, protected by the African National Congress.

If the MDC resists a deal then it is possible that the government will announce the presidential election will go into a run off giving the MDC one more chance to agree to Mugabe's terms. If they continue to resist it is possible that Mugabe will try to steal the run-off but that is dangerous for him. In addition remember the president appoints a large number of seats in the parliament. If Mugabe "wins" the run-off he can appoint enough seats to take away the MDC majority. Do not assume that this is over by any means.