Robert Mugabe

It takes 55 million Zimbabwean dollars to buy a single American one. Schools have no teachers. Hospitals have become mortuaries. And inflation has topped 100,000%. As President Robert Mugabe, 84, seeks a sixth term in elections Saturday, Zimbabwe's financial catastrophe takes the words "It's the economy, stupid," to a new level. Yet even with a crisis so intractable it would finish off any leader in a genuine democracy, Mugabe is expected to maintain his grip on power.

Costa Mizha's eyes blinked open at 4 a.m. Saturday with a sense of anticipation he hadn't felt in years. This was it, March 29. Election day. It was like waking up on the day of a big party. "His time is up now," Mizha thought. He even felt a strange twang of sympathy for the "Old Man," unwanted by his country. He was certain in his bones that Zimbabwe's 84-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, would be chased away in Saturday's election like a broken-down horse. "He's old," Mizha said.

Signs continued to point Monday to either a runoff or outright defeat for longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in the weekend presidential election, but no final overall count was released for a second straight day. According to initial official results released by the Zimbabwe Election Commission, with 66 of 210 parliament seats decided, Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party was one seat ahead of the main opposition party with no presidential results announced.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed Tuesday to have defeated President Robert Mugabe in Saturday's presidential election and called on the longtime leader to respect voters' will. In his first public appearance since the vote, Tsvangirai endorsed official results released thus far and said any talks on a smooth transition could occur only after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's final announcement of the tally.

President Robert Mugabe's party has lost its majority in parliament after 28 years in power, election officials announced Wednesday, as the aging Zimbabwean leader faced a more damaging blow: the virtual certainty of a runoff in the presidential race that he has scant hope of winning.

Authorities searched offices of the main opposition party and detained foreign journalists Thursday, fueling fears that ruling party hard-liners were trying to block a deal to end President Robert Mugabe's 28 years in power. Five days after weekend balloting, the country's election commission still had not released results of the presidential voting. But officials have announced that Mugabe's ZANU-PF party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time.

As dozens of riot police patrolled the capital Friday, President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party announced that it would contest the election results for 16 parliamentary seats, enough to overturn a landmark opposition victory. The party's politburo also endorsed Mugabe to fight opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a runoff for the presidency.

Militant war veterans allied with Zimbabwe's ruler threatened to evict white farmers Sunday, and about a dozen opposition activists were beaten and arrested by police over the weekend. The attacks raised fears that President Robert Mugabe's government was launching a violent campaign to assure his victory in an expected presidential runoff election. Eighteen farmers were threatened and several were forced to flee their properties as they were besieged by chanting, drum-beating mobs.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe skipped a regional summit Saturday addressing the deepening crisis over the country's contentious presidential election, giving southern African leaders little chance to step up the pressure on him. The summit reflected Mugabe's growing isolation, as well as cracks in the usually uniform solidarity with him exhibited by the Southern African Development Community.

President Robert Mugabe devoted his first major speech since the unresolved presidential election three weeks ago to denouncing whites and former colonial ruler Britain, blaming them for the country's political and economic troubles. "There are black people who are putting prices up, but they are being used by the whites," Mugabe said. Whites "want the people to starve so they think the government is wrong and they should remove it," said Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980.