Failing the test of democracy

S Africa joins Zimbabwe vote call:

South Africa has joined international calls for Zimbabwe's electoral commission to release the results of last month's presidential election.

The call came a day after the head of the UN warned that the credibility of democracy in Africa could be at stake.

Correction: The credibility of Zimbabwe's democracy is at stake. It's becoming pretty clear that Mugabe has no intention of allowing himself to be declared the loser -- the election results were due, by law, within one week of the poll -- at least not in any meaningful way. Since the only real test of a democracy is whether a government will allow itself to be voted out of office, I guess we have to conclude that Zimbabwe is not a democracy, Mugabe is a dictator, and that elections in that country are purely for show -- a la Saddam.

I suppose I'm stating the obvious here, but I think more people need to start saying it out loud, and stop taking this 'election' seriously. The end result looks as though it has been a foregone conclusion all along.