Magic Statistics

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Results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission show that Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has lost control of the country’s House of Assembly.  There is still no word on results of presidential voting.

Zimbabwe’s official election commission has confirmed that the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), the party which has ruled the country for nearly 30 years, has lost its parliamentary majority, news agencies report.
. . .
Reuters reported the ZEC as announcing that President Robert Mugabe’s party had won 94 of the 210 seats in parliament.  With only seven results outstanding, the party could not win the 106 seats it would need to control parliament.

The combined opposition parties reportedly took 105 of the 207 contested seats. Of those, 96 were won by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It thus appeared that the MDC faction headed by Arthur Mutambara could hold the balance of power in Parliament.

The MDC claims that Morgan Tsvangirai has won the presidential race with more than 50% of the popular vote.  An absolute majority is required to avoid a run-off election between the top two vote-getters, which would have to be held within 21 days.

Most observers think a run-off will prove necessary, and that it would almost certainly result in a decisive defeat for Mugabe.

With official results still unreported in the separate presidential race, which was held alongside parliamentary balloting Saturday, Mugabe, in power all the 28 years since independence from Britain, may be focused on a runoff to try to extend his increasingly autocratic rule. An independent election observer said a ruling party official had told her the party would use every weapon in his considerable arsenal to ensure a runoff victory.

The opposition claimed outright victory for leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential race, but the state-controlled newspaper predicted a runoff. The newspaper report was the first official admission that Mugabe had not won re-election. Mugabe has been silent and has not appeared in public since the vote.

The big fear is that a head-to-head contest between Mugabe and his long-time arch-enemy Tsvangirai will be marred by violence such as was seen in the 2000 and 2002 elections.

Previous related posts:

• Zimbabwe opposition claims victory
• Will Mugabe steal the Zimbabwe election?

Turkey’s constitutional court has agreed to consider the charge brought by the chief prosecutor against the ruling AKP party, which is accused of undermining the republic’s founding secular principles.

After a four-hour session, the Turkish constitutional court has ruled by accepting the charge presented last March 14 to the Yargitay by the chief prosecutor of the republic, who denounces Erdogan's party as unconstitutional. The AKP is the moderate Islamic Justice and Development party, the majority party that won the last elections with 46.6% of the vote (16.5 million voters).  The AKP thus risks immediate isolation and the exclusion of 71 of its members from the country's political life for five years.  These include the president of the republic, Abdullah Gul, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, some of the cabinet ministers, and many of the country's mayors.

The chief prosecutor’s 162-page report is said to contain ample evidence that the AKP is Islamic in nature and has already implemented many legal innovations intended to reflect Sharia law.

Previous related post: Turkey’s secular establishment challenges ruling party

Muslims in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, have purchased land and plan to build a mosque.

Two empty, snow-covered lots in Inuvik, N.W.T., could soon be home to Canada's most northerly mosque.

The Muslim association in the Arctic town of 3,500 recently purchased the lots, after three years of fundraising.
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For the past eight years, Inuvik's Muslims have prayed in a converted one-bedroom trailer. But space in the makeshift mosque is getting tight — Friday prayers can attract up to 25 people.
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[T]he proposed mosque will hold up to 100 people, and have space for activities beyond prayer.

There is no official count of the number of Muslims in Inuvik.  The 2001 Census counted 175 Muslims in all of NWT.

Previous related post: Muslim martyrs in Yukon

Blazing Cat Fur has been poring over the 2007 Annual Report of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and discovered a truly revolting development: The CHRC wants to implement a new category of "human rights" based on social condition.

That’s bad, but Northern Ireland may be about to see something even worse.

Lazy men and women will soon be accused of breaching their partners' constitutional rights if they refuse to share the household chores.

The UK's first written Bill of Rights, to be enacted in Northern Ireland as part of the Good Friday Agreement, will also enshrine in law the right of partners to take time off from housework.

The Observer has obtained a draft of the Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, which will be voted on by MPs in Westminster. The section on 'The Right to Work' says: 'All workers, including those working in the home or in informal employment, are entitled to rest, leisure, respite and reasonable limitation of working hours, as well as appropriate provision for retirement.'

Another example of Orwellian human rights speak: The section may be titled “Right to Work”, but it’s really about a right to rest.

Austen Morgan QC, the author of the definitive legal analysis of the Good Friday Agreement and an adviser to Tory leader David Cameron, said: 'This clause could be deployed by anyone who feels their rights have been violated in the home. They could use it as a remedy against lazy partners who refuse to hoover, do the dishes or iron clothes.

'The clause also opens up the possibility for estranged spouses to invoke the bill in divorce cases in Northern Ireland. The danger of this is that it invades the private space of individuals. The whole project is legally inept and full of holes.'

“Inept and full of holes”?  Then watch for the Canadian Human Rights Commission to adopt it here in the very near future.

Here’s another newly minted right about to be foisted on Northern Ireland taxpayers.

'Everyone has the right to choose a nomadic or sedentary lifestyle and to change from one lifestyle to the other,' says the bill.

Great.  That could mean that bums have a right to public support.

As a final insult, the Northern Ireland Assembly cannot vote on the bill.  The decision to accept will be made by MPs in London.

Previous related post: Unelected “experts” destroying credibility of human rights