70 innocent lives have been murdered already and there is every chance more lives will be lost before 27 June vote. A "win" for Tsvangirai would mean only one thing- more lives will be lost. It is not clear when or how the killing spree will end, Mugabe and those around him in key positions, particularly security have vowed they will not give up power.
The only other political out come is a Mugabe "win". An outcome, like it or not is even more certain now than ever. The people, the voters, have been so traumatised they can not do anything else but vote as they are "told". It is all very well for people talking of stubbornly refusing to be coerced but quite another if you were the one at the coal-face.
So if a Mugabe victory is but assured; why should more innocent people have their lives turned up side down and more human lives lost? MDC should not be mulling over this like a dog over a bone. They must withdraw now before one more life is lost.
What the one thing that has lost Mugabe's popular support is his handling of the economy. The great majority of Zimbabweans really do not care how many whites still own farms in Zimbabwe nor what happens to them. They also do not care who now owns the 4 000 white owned farms seized since 2000. So Mugabe's talk of not giving power until all land is in blacks' hands is all hot air. What the people are concerned about is empty shops, the valueless Z$ and all the other host of economic hardship caused by Zimbabwe's economic melt down.
On the 27 June Mugabe may go to bed content that he has retained his crown. The following day he will wake up to the biggest hangover of his political life- Zimbabwe's economic melt down- and, worse still, one that simply will not go away. It is the economy stupid- not the X on a ballot paper or a bullet - that will get the old dictator out of State House.
Mugabe is nothing but a fatally wounded animal. Tsvangirai wanted the honour of being the one who slew the dreaded beast. There is more political mileage in than in taking the scalp of a dead one. He never considered holding back even when violence and threat to human lives was a certainty after Mugabe deployed the war veterans and state agents in April. It is sad that only now, when the whole electoral process is overwhelming flawed in favour of Mugabe, Tsvangirai should be considering withdrawing.
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