Well, the call for a general strike went over like a dead balloon, though I think that the excuse, that too many people are too near starvation to participate, has some validity.

In terms of a runoff, Morgan Tsvangirai says that he will participate if, “a tally verified by both parties and the Southern African Development Community shows no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote”, as he has no confidence in the electoral commission, which is clearly in Mugabe’s pocket.

In terms of the brighter side of this whole mess, it appears that Thabo Mbeki is also a loser in this affair, as members of the ANC, including ANC leader Jacob Zuma’s proxy Matthews Phosa are openly criticizing him. (also here)

This is a good thing. With his unqualified support of Mugabe, and his quite frankly delusional opposition to the use of anti-virals to fight AIDS, Mbeki is well past any usefulness to either the nation of South Africa, or the southern African region as a whole.