AlexKeto.com

As the Democratic party here at home flails about chanting eenie, meenie, minie, moe between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the thought does occur that things could be worse.

For instance, we could all be in Zimbabwe where there is no election suspense any longer for that country's run-off race between President-for-Life Robert Mugabe and Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Yes, Grace Mugabe, irascible Bob's marital squeeze and usually best known for reserving one of the Air Zimbabwe's jets on permanent standby for her luxury shopping trips to Paris, said that Tsvangirai is dreaming if he thinks he will ever be president.

"Even if people vote for the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai will never step foot inside State House," Mrs. Mugabe said. "He will only get to hear about what it looks like inside State House from people who have been there. Even if Baba [Mugabe] loses, he will only leave State House to make way for someone from Zanu-PF."

Hmmm, so irascible Bob's pet pillow talk name is Baba? Who knew? But I suppose even senile old tyrants need a loving word cooed in their ear whenever the paranoia demons have got them by the short and curlies.

In any case, I suspect Grace Mugabe has let the cat out of the bag that the whole exercise in democracy in Zimbabwe is just one big farce, but we could have picked up that point simply by paying attention to the March 29 election which irascible Baba stole as well. For the cynical minded, it does remind us that when it comes to some African liberation movements, the real slogan was "one man, one vote, one time." Or perhaps, "you're free to vote as long as you vote the right way."

Grace Mugabe's outrage at Tsvangirai alledgedly stems from the political violence that has swept the country and filled the hospitals with severely wounded people and the morgues with corpses. The First-Lady-of-Zimbabwe-for-Life Grace publicly points the finger of blame at the opposition and claims that they are the perpetrators of the massive wave of repression.

Funny thing that because the U.N. has just issued a report that comes to a somewhat different conclusion. It says that there is indeed massive levels of violence going on in Zimbabwe, but it is coming from the government and its militias and it is targetting the opposition itself.

But why should I put words into the mouth of the U.N?

Here's what it said: "There appears to be an increasing pattern of people being targeted for politically motivated assassination. At another, arrests, harassment, intimidation and violence -- directed not just at people with political affiliations, but also at members of civil society -- are continuing on a daily basis."

The report went on to say that in the last week alone, several opposition activists have been killed. 

So who are you going to believe when it comes to the violence, Grace Mugabe or the U.N?

On that particular question, I would bet the house the U.N. has it right, but at the same time, I also know for a fact that Grace isn't lying when she says Morgan Tsvangirai will not win the election no matter how many votes he gets.

The tragedy of Zimbabwe deepens.