Not long ago on this blog my friend Morris Szeftel referred to Morgan Tsvangirai's belief 'that Mugabe would have accepted the election results but was prevented from doing so by his hardliners'. A report in yesterday's Washington Post confirms this. On March 30 Robert Mugabe told a meeting of his security officials that he would give up power.
But Zimbabwe's military chief, Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the choice was not Mugabe's alone to make. According to two firsthand accounts of the meeting, Chiwenga told Mugabe his military would take control of the country to keep him in office or the president could contest a runoff election, directed in the field by senior army officers supervising a military-style campaign against the opposition.For what followed, see the rest of the report. (Thanks: KS.)Mugabe, the only leader this country has known since its break from white rule nearly three decades ago, agreed to remain in the race and rely on the army to ensure his victory. During an April 8 military planning meeting, according to written notes and the accounts of participants, the plan was given a code name: CIBD. The acronym, which proved apt in the fevered campaign that unfolded over the following weeks, stood for: Coercion. Intimidation. Beating. Displacement.