The re-election of Mr. Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe augurs ill for the future of the southern African republic and for the regional stability of southern Africa as a whole. Mr. Mugabe has governed the former British colony since it became independent in 1980, pushing an ambitious program of national reconstruction. But his increasingly authoritarian rule has effectively ruined the economic and social fabric of the landlocked country.
In a presidential election earlier this month, the 78-year-old tyrant won another six-year term by defeating his rival, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, who blames Mr. Mugabe for political corruption and economic chaos. Mr. Tsvangirai has contested the president's victory. Western governments have criticized the election as rigged.
Reports from international election observers say Mr. Mugabe's government mobilized the military and police to obstruct campaigning by anti-Mugabe forces and to openly manipulate vote counting. Local observers say the number of polling stations in opposition strongholds was sharply reduced and that tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were "deliberately and systemically disenfranchised." No wonder the poll has been denounced as a "coup through the ballot box."