Zimbabwe: No election, no violence?

last updated 8 January 2015

What happened

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from Friday's run-off against Zimbabwe’s longtime president, Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai said he pulled out to protect his supporters after ruling-party militias killed 86 people. (Bloomberg) Zimbabwe officials, who blame Tsvangirai supporters for the violence, said the election would proceed as planned, and that Tsvangirai's withdrawal was a ruse to avoid “humiliation” if he loses. (BBC News)

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“The presidential election was never likely to produce a resolution to the crisis in Zimbabwe,” said Marian Tupy in The New York Sun. Mugabe, 84, has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of giving up power as long as he lives. The “time is ripe” for Mugabe’s neighbors, especially South Africa, and the rest of the world to impose an arms embargo—maybe he won’t be so defiant if his army and police don’t have “the weapons they need to put down internal dissent.”

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