Editorial

As the leaders of the African Union meet today at their summit meeting in Egypt, the rest of the world will be watching out to see what sort of red carpet treatment the man who stole the elections in Zimbabwe will receive.

As voters in that country went to the polls to elect the only candidate offering himself for the job of President, the rest of the world looked on with horror at the way the election unfolded. In the first poll, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), collected more seats in Parliament and more votes in the election for the Presidency than Robert Mugabe. Much good it did him. The Zimbabwean dictator refused to recognise the result.

Before the second poll was held, he declared publicly that he would not accept an MDC victory and, indeed, would wage all-out war against an MDC government. Posters for his party blazed out: This is the final battle for total control of Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans! The MDC was an enemy who had to be destroyed even if it won. This was bizarre even by standards used in communist countries during the halcyon days of the Revolution.

To demonstrate that he meant what he said, Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF unleashed acts of terror in the countryside, where the MDC is dominant, imprisoned the secretary general of the MDC, who was charged with treason - and released just before election day - and organised a poll where voters cast their ballot with dyed fingerprints against a serial number that could be checked against identity. It was not quite a re-run of Matabeleland in 1980, where thousands of Mr Mugabe's opponents were slaughtered, but Mr Mugabe was demonstrating that if Matabeleland was what Mr Tsvangirai wanted, Matabeleland was what he would get.

Not surprisingly, Mr Tsvangirai decided that the threat to the safety of his supporters was far too great. It would be irresponsible to ask them to go to the polling stations "when their votes could cost them their lives". He asked them to boycott the election; but even boycotting had its dangers. Mr Mugabe insisted that every Zimbabwean turn out to vote. That millions did not do so is testimony enough of their bravery.

Mr Mugabe's claim to have won an overwhelming victory added to the surreal situation that exists in the country he ruined single-handedly. Democratic countries are asking what demons drive him on, an octogenarian despot clinging to power by rendering his people powerless? Before the election, the United Nations Security Council denounced his regime. That China and Russia eventually lined up behind the denunciation is a measure not so much of their own democratic credentials as of their acknowledgement that there was hardly an African state, including the foot-dragging South African government, that had not lined itself up against Mr Mugabe. They understood, at last, that they stood to lose if they failed to condemn the inhuman business that has been going on in that country.

Washington has already called for sanctions against what it called, correctly, "an illegitimate government". The European Union has withdrawn its ambassadors. It remains to be seen what China will do; more importantly, what the African Union will do with its hugely embarrassing guest. Expect him to swagger into the conference hall. What matters is what happens next...