A crooked election

Stuff reports:

The Commonwealth joined other election observers in urging Zimbabwe to release results of the presidential vote as soon as possible to reduce the tensions, saying delays will increase speculation that results were manipulated. The electoral commission said the results would come “very soon.”

Of course the results are manipulated. It doesn’t take five days to count votes. It takes a few hours. Any election result that isn’t released in real time, is probably being forged.

The Electoral Commission are probably trying to decide what margin of victory for the President is believable. This is quite a tough job for them.

If they choose a margin too high, then it is even more obvious the results are fake. No one will but an 80 – 20 result.

But if they choose a margin too close, such as 51-49, then the results may inspire the Opposition and the Government may not be seen to have a strong enough mandate.

So the ideal result to forge is probably around the 55% to 45% mark. Looks realistic, but not too close.