A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

When the first round of presidential voting took place in Zimbabwe, it took weeks for the government to come back with results and when it did, it made clear that it would steal the elections and give Robert Mugabe yet another chance to win in a second round of voting.

Now that the second round of voting has taken place, and now that the Mugabe regime has been able to scare off Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC from participating in the election, it is able to report its results ever so much faster:

Robert Mugabe looked poised to have himself re-appointed president of Zimbabwe on Sunday, following a roundly condemned election in which he was the lone candidate.

Despite a low turnout in the poll, tents were being raised at a stadium in Harare on Saturday, according to news agency reports and a senior Zimbabwean civil society figure, seemingly in preparation for a hasty coronation before the ageing autocrat heads to Egypt for a summit of African leaders.

A swift inauguration would see Friday's results rushed out in advance. In the absence of almost all election monitors and following a campaign of intimidation by security forces and militias loyal to Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, the outcome will be highly dubious at best, civil society groups and the opposition say.

Every time one is led to believe that things could not possibly get any worse in Zimbabwe, the Mugabe regime demonstrates a shocking capacity to surprise. I shudder to think what we will see next in this sorry story.