What is causing the delay in Zimbabwe?

That is the question that has been going on in everyone's mind since the African country went to the polls last weekend.The election is being contested by current Zimbabwe President,Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF who has been ruling the country for 28 long years,against opposition party MDC leader,Morgan Tsvangirai as well as Mugabe's former finance minister.It has almost been a week now but no official winner as been name yet.

The MDC party however has declared on Wednesday,that Morgan Tsvangirai is the outright winner,saying he took 50.3 percent of the almost 2.4 million votes.Well,that seems to be the general view of the Zimbabwean currently.The state-run newspaper reported Wednesday that Mugabe and Tsvangirai will compete in a presidential runoff because neither candidate garnered more than 50 percent of the vote.According to another state-run newspaper,The Herald,the elections for parliament's lower house came down to a "photo finish," with MDC taking 99 seats and ZANU-PF 97.Now in the last election,it only took less than 24 hours to announce a winner,but the result was of course being suspected of being rigged by the Mugabe's people.Many are saying that the delays in annoucing the result is because Mugabe is once again trying to change things to suit him better,but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Thursday it has postponed releasing results from elections for the Senate,parliament's upper house. The government blames the delays in announcing results on logistics,noting that four elections were held simultaneously.Their Deputy Information Minister however,Bright Matonga has said the law gives the government until Friday to release the results.

Lets look at the current situation.Mugabe who was prime minister before taking the presidential post in 1987,has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain 28 years ago.But being the President for a very long time does not mean that he is doing a good job.The country is suffering.Many of the people are living on the streets and suffering from poverty and many of them are trying to run away from the country in search for a better living.A lot of past election was also suspected of being rigged to be in Mugabe's favor.A year after the last presidential election,which the MDC alleges was stolen,,the government charged Tsvangirai with treason.He was acquitted.The MDC accused Mugabe of trying to eliminate him as a challenger.But he has come back again this time to show that he is not giving up so easily.So what happens now? If both Mugabe and Tsvangirai are unable to get the majority vote to be the next president,they might face each other this time in the presidential run-off.I honestly think that Tsvangirai has won the election and Mugabe is just trying to delay the announcement of the result so that he could plan something to change the situation.In fact yesterday,Zimbabwean government forces has began cracking down on the main opposition party.Four journalists unaccredited by the Zimbabwean government were taken away.Tendai Biti, secretary-general for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,said his party's offices in another Harare hotel,were also raided by Zimbabwean forces.

I understand if the Zimbabwean forces is going to raid the journalists hotels,but the government has clearly stated that foreign journalists are ban from reporting in the country.But to raid the opposition party hotels will only raise more suspicion that Mugabe is trying to do anything he can to stay in power despite what the result is.I just hope that the election result will be announced as soon as possible and in a fair manner.The Zimbabwean has suffered too much under Mugabe's rule.If they want to have a change,then Mugabe should listen to them and step down as the President.If he still wants to stay in power everytime,then I do not think there is a need for an election anymore.I would expect more developments in the next few days to come,and hopefully positive developments.

*The report is taken from CNN.