the only apt word for both what’s happened to any pretense of democracy… and for any hopes that this time could be different.

Robert Mugabe apparently retained his presidential post Sunday after the opposition candidate dropped out of this week’s runoff because, he said, asking Zimbabweans to vote was asking them to risk their lives.

“The courageous people of Zimbabwe, of this country, and the people of the MDC have done everything humanly and democratically possible to deliver a new Zimbabwe and new government,” candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said after a closed-door meeting of his Movement for Democratic Change.

…

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” Tsvangirai said, adding that it would be dangerous forZimbabweans to castballots.

“We in the MDC cannot ask them to cast their vote on the 27th when that vote could cost them their lives…”

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