‘President … Tsvangirai has won this election’

The Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change is having a lot of fun lately. And they can. Thrice Mugabe and ZANU-PF’s rigging and intimidation scared their supporters off. Now things are different.

A friend and Zim watcher, Wendy Willems (at SOAS in London) pointed out Tendai Biti’s smarts (he’s got jokes) at a press conference today where he announced MDC’s version of the results (which he jokingly referred to as the ‘parallel market’ results. Zim watchers will get the joke).

Note the use of ‘Comrade’ for Makoni to dismiss him as a ZANU-PF stealth candidate, the ordinary reference to Mugabe, and then check the big finish.

Comrade Simba Makoni …

Mugabe, Robert …

Mr Tsvangirai …

And then he says:

‘President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has won this election.’

Then the applause.