Russ Feingold: “with skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, riots over land reform and food shortages, and streams of economic and…”

“with skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, riots over land reform and food shortages, and streams of economic and political refugees fleeing into neighboring countries, the primary constant in Zimbabwe over the last 30 years has been the increasingly despotic and disastrous rule of President Robert Mugabe. A decade ago, high interest rates and inflation galvanized public support for the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions led by Morgan Tsvangirai, who was chosen in 1999 to lead a new opposition party--the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC. In 2002 and 2005, President Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party rigged Presidential and Parliamentary elections to maintain its grip on power, and while he tried to do it again on March 29 of this year, the MDC and the people of Zimbabwe refused to be intimidated or outmaneuvered. Despite the Zimbabwean Government's best efforts to limit the access of international monitors and journalists, most observers concur that the general elections conducted this past March were fraught with rigging, mainly to favor the ruling ZANU-PF. Even so, these efforts failed to silence the people of Zimbabwe's call for change. After significant and unexplained delays, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced that the MDC had won a majority in Parliament and that Mr. Tsvangirai won more votes for the Presidency, but not enough to avoid a runoff.”