Well the results are in and they’ve been plenty doctored. Here’s the overview, with the opposition promising something unspecified to happen.

Harare ???????? President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party has secured a majority in parliament, according to results announced Friday in an election the opposition says was marred by fraud.

Thursday’s vote was seen as a test of the legitimacy of Mr. Mugabe’s increasingly autocratic regime after 25 years in power. Mr. Mugabe, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, is the last on the continent who has ruled his country since independence from the colonial powers.

Mr. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front won 55 of parliament’s 120 elected seats, compared to 34 for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mr. Mugabe appoints an additional 30 seats, guaranteeing a majority for his party.

Opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai had pledged to contest the results, and said he would do more than merely appeal in Zimbabwe’s courts ???????? which the government has packed with sympathetic judges. But he would not specify what action it would take.

The article also records a specific incidence of box stuffing:

Early results had shown some success for the MDC because they were released largely from the party’s urban strongholds.

“If you look back to the 2000 election, ZANU-PF has a strategy of first announcing election results in MDC strongholds so they can wink at the world and say look how free and fair we are,” said party spokeswoman Miriam Mushaye.

Mr. Mugabe’s nephew, ruling party candidate Patrick Zhawao, was declared the winner in Manyame, 40 kilometres southwest of Harare, in a what the MDC charged was the first example of vote manipulation by the government.

Election officials announced Thursday night that 14,812 people voted there. But early Friday, they changed the total to 24,000 and said Mr. Zhawao got more than 15,000 votes. Election commission officials refused to comment on the discrepancy but dismissed suggestions of vote rigging.

“I won. I was leading. Suddenly I hear about 24,000 votes, and I don’t know where the extra 10,000 came from,” said losing MDC candidate Hilda Mafudze. “It is the first example of what we are going to start seeing from here on.”

MORE:

With results in from 105 of the 120 contested seats, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF had 69 — one short of the 70 it needs for a two-thirds majority.

That is not good at all. With a 2/3 majority, Mugabe can change the constitution practically at will.

Constant updates over at Sokwanele with reports from many constituencies. Remember the zombie voters? Well, guess how much money it takes just to challenge one name…

If you wish to lodge an objection to the retention of any name on the voters???????? roll a $100 000 fee is charged. This amount constitutes the sum total or more of many pensioner????????s monthly earning, and more than the minimum wage was up until two days ago. Hence Zanupf are able to count on the dead not being removed from the roll.

Tomorrow Sokwanele will be releasing a comprehensive report of election violations and rigging based on first hand reports from around the country. They are reporting signs of mass movement around the country.

Clear signs are emerging in Zimbabwe of a mobilization of the people. Despite the massive police presence across the country and in the full knowledge that the army is being held on a high state of alert to put down any popular uprising, the call has gone out for people to take to the streets in protest against yet another rigged election.

The evidence is now clear, that the current parliamentary elections have been massively rigged and particularly in the rural constituencies. Across the country stories are pouring in of ZANU PF agents acting in defiance of the country????????s electoral law and of every norm of free and democratic elections. The opposition MDC????????s election agents have been illegally detained at numerous polling stations in order to prevent them from communicating the polling station results which the presiding officers should have communicated, but failed to communicate immediately on the completion of the count.

ZANU PF have not only committed a massive fraud. They have also violated in most blatant fashion the electoral laws which they themselves crafted. Over and again the electoral institutions have demonstrated their partisan nature, as have the courts. Therefore the people of Zimbabwe can have no hope of legal redress of their legitimate grievances within the existing framework of unjust laws and corrupt administration. In short, they have no option but to take to the streets in protest at the way in which they have effectively been disenfranchised by a clique of corrupt, self-serving politicians.

Only a few days ago the courageous Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, advocated a non-violent and peaceful uprising to remove an entrenched dictatorship that has caused untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe. It seems the people are heeding that call.

The people of Zimbabwe who are rising up to throw off the chains of oppression deserve the support of the international community. Pray God we may not fail them at this hour.

Yes, pray for them. And pray that this is true as well. If it does happen, will Mugabe crack down? Most likely. If he doesn’t, then he could lose his government. If he does? He certainly doesn’t face consequences unless it doesn’t work.

But is resistance worth it? Yes. Mugabe can’t be allowed to falsify the elections and become absolute ruler over Zimbabwe’s constitution. If there was ever a moment to save themselves, this is it.

UPDATE: WILLisms notes:

In terms of stifling free and objective journalism in Zimbabwe, only Libya, Burma, Turkmenistan, and North Korea have less freedom of the press.

This is ironic, because Libyan election observers were present. What does that say about the authenticity of the results?