Zimbabwe run-off poll a possibility

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has a nice way of speaking directly. Unlike Robert Mugabe, who appears to have developed a truth filter in his larynx! The Archbishop says of the Zimbabwean poll, "Even the dumbest of us would say that results would not have been held back... had it not been the fact that Mr Mugabe has not won. Had the Zanu-PF won these elections we would have heard them crowing a long time ago." Exactly, Mugabe, even with the previous fixings he managed, would have been out before the cameras like some parrot desperate to spill the beans on his owner's antics! Instead, he's holed up somewhere, eyeballing those around him to see if their body language is predicting a coup, or worse.

I'd suggest he reverts to his cricketing metaphors and declares the game is over. He keeps telling the British Government that "it's not cricket", so now is the time for a new bat and ball. The pitch is in a terrible condition, his team mates are looking edgy, and the umpires seem to be reading from the rules of baseball.

A run-off election would be a joke. The last pictures of Mugabe that I saw on television showed him wandering aimlessly around a voting booth. I think that summed it up for me. The man's lost it (in more ways than one!), but nobody seems capable or willing to tell him.

He's got only a few days. If he come's out now and withdraws gracefully, he might be allowed some respite from recriminations. But if he leaves it, well who knows! He could end up like Mussolini. Somebody should give him a menu of dictator deaths. Choose the best option or surrender now!