In the last day or two, we have seen the beginnings of the revealing of Mugabe’s plan to remain in office. Regardless of the results of elections, or the legalities of his continued rule.

I thought I might spend a little time looking at the legalities and the modalities of Mugabe’s tenure as it stand right now.

Mugabe today masquerades as the President of Zimbabwe. Elections results have put him in second place behind the leader of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai.

But Mugabe is not going to go without a fight. His people have set about beating the people within an inch of their lives. But that is not what I want to look at.

Mugabe has had the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announce a 90 day delay on the second round run off. Mugabe does not have the required authority to force this delay. In fact, he has little or no power really. But don’t tell him that - because it would be a waste of breath.

The Reserve Bank has been busy in the background, releasing two new bearer cheques - 250 and 500 million Zimbabwean dollars apiece. This is done with the blessing of Mugabe - as the sitting President - which I don’t believe he is.

International newspapers insist on calling Patrick Chinamasa, a man who has lost his seat in Parliament, as the “Minister of Justice”. You see, Mugabe has illegally re-appointed his cabinet - in total disregard of the election results.

I suppose what I am saying is that Mugabe is carrying on as if he had won the election, and is delaying the second round as long as he can so as to allow his people to re-educate the voters on who they should chose.

I had written before on this page that his actions make this the quietest coup in history - but that is proving a misnomer, as the cries of the beaten people begin to be heard - and we realise the silent moves within the halls of power mask the noise of those being beaten or murdered elsewhere in the country.

And the silence within the halls of power is echoed by the silence from organisations like the African Union and the United Nations. Historically, Mugabe has been protected by world events, and he is quick to take advantage of events elsewhere on the globe.

Mugabe used 9/11, the death of the Pope, the Tsunami - and now the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China - to steamroll over his would-be opponents, secure in the knowledge that any protractor has their attention deflected, and their abilities to react (even if they wanted to) taken up with other requirements.

In the last two months we have watched how the subject of Zimbabwe has fallen off the front page of the newspapers, and now seldom appears at all - even in the lesser pages… which suits Mugabe just fine.
The world is happy if the African problem of Zimbabwe is solved by Africans - regardless of the outcome or the legalities of how that outcome is achieved.

Let’s remember that the US and the UK invaded Iraq (twice!) for much less reason than Mugabe gives us.

The legalities and the modalities of Mugabe’s continued tenure need to be studied hard, opposed and that opposition must remove him. Otherwise we lend legitimacy to his continued rule.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man