New deadline for Zimbabwe's vote

Zimbabwe's government has extended the deadline by which the presidential run-off vote must be held to 31 July.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the decision was illegal and unfair.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the first round on 29 March, but with not enough votes to avoid a run-off.

Meanwhile the justice minister has proposed establishing cross-party teams to probe acts of political violence.

"Whenever there is a claim of an act of politically motivated violence committed, it should be very good that we form joint teams made up of the (ruling party) Zanu-PF and MDC so that we can establish the veracity of these claims," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told state television.

The MDC had threatened to boycott the second round of voting after accusing Zanu-PF of trying to rig it but over the weekend Mr Tsvangirai said he would take part.

He has been in neighbouring countries since the first round because of alleged threats to his life.

Bu the MDC says that Mr Tsvangirai will return to address a rally in Bulawayo on Sunday.

SockPuppet said:
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean economy goes from bad to worse.

IIUC, this sort of inflation rate hasn't been seen since 1920s Germany. That turned out well...

SockPuppet said:
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean economy goes from bad to worse.

IIUC, this sort of inflation rate hasn't been seen since 1920s Germany. That turned out well...

Old_Fritz said:

South America had it bad not too long ago. I forget which country but I remember reading an article (a long time ago) about how inflation was so bad they had to spend all their money that day, because it was virtually worthless by the next day. I wish I could be more specific, but I can't.

Hunkpapa said:

Argentina? I admit I didn't actually know about this before - the situation I was thinking of was in 1999-2002

Old_Fritz said:

I was thinking Argentina, but I don't know why. Sounds about right.

IDGAS said:

I am still calling at 3:00 AM. No it will be 3:04 AM.