In Zimbabwe incumbent President Robert Mugabe has been declared the winner in last weekend’s presidential elections.This week, the headlines in the corporate media in the US and Western Europe were awash with condemnations of theelections. Headlines like “Zimbabwe’s Stolen Vote” “Mugabe’s False Victory” and “Washington Doesn’t RecognizeZimbabwe Election Results.” But despite the headlines in the western press, many of the election observers fromAfrican nations say the election result is legitimate. An observer team from the Organization of African Unity calledthe poll “transparent, credible, free and fair.” Namibia called the election “watertight, without room for rigging,”and Nigerian observers said they had seen nothing that threatened the integrity of the poll.

Still, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvingari has declared the election one of the greatest frauds of modernelections.

Guests:

• Ambassador Simbi Mubako, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the United States. He is also a law professor and helectures frequently in the US and around the world. This past winter he taught a course at Williams College inMassachusetts on political history of southern Africa.
• Trevor Ncube, is publisher of the Zimbabwe Independent, a weekly newspaper in Harare.