Showdown in Zimbabwe

President Mugabe's recent behavior doesn't suprise me in the least. He is apparently preparing legions of armed youth militia to fight to keep him in power in preparation for the upcoming elections. Two days from now he faces a possible "peaceful" uprising, led by Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Roman Catholic Church, in the wake of an expected theft of the election by the ZANU-PF government. Does all of this signal a start in the inevitable demise of autocratic rule in Africa?

Archbishop Ncube is the Roman Catholics' second most senior cleric in Zimbabwe. His unprecedented call for a peaceful uprising to stop Mr Mugabe, whom he has branded a brutal crook who relies on ballot theft to cling to power, has seemingly energised a previously cowed populace.

People getting energized about the posibility of freedom (not to mention food)? Who would have thought?

One of the issues that bothers me the most is the fact that representatives from South Africa and the AU are the main people being tasked to oversee this election (of course, Mugabe still insists the elections will be fair and there is nothing to worry about because he will win by a landslide anyway...blah, blah). Now anyone that knows something about African politics could probably tell you that these two regional players have been some of the most lenient towards Mugabe's policies out of any pro-Western political entity.

Some 500 international observers, including delegations from the South African government, parliament and ruling ANC, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union have deployed across Zimbabwe to monitor the poll.

The Commonwealth, the United States, Britain and the European Union -- all of which have accused Mugabe of political abuses in the past -- were not invited to participate.

Well that's a relief.

Below are some good Zimbabwe blogs you might want to check out for more of a man-on-the-street feel as this story unfolds (courtesy of Glenn Reynolds):

http://www.sokwanele.com/blog/blog.html

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2005/03/zimbabwes_hopes.html

If I find any more, I will be sure to post them.