Pieces of Paper in a Box

Mugabe is yet another sad example of a dictator who is completely incapable of grasping the import of democracy. It seems that they look at western democratic countries and say "look, they put pieces of paper in a box and congratulate themselves for a democratic election and say 'look how wonderful democracy is.' Then we shall also put pieces of paper in a box, and all of the pieces of paper shall have my name on it, and then they shall congratulate us and accept my rule as a 'democratically elected' government". What these dictators sadly fail to grasp is that an election is not about putting pieces of paper in a box. They sadly think that people putting pieces of paper in a box under duress and physical threat is an election and democracy. Do they think that we are fooled by the charade? What they don't understand is that what is at the heart of an election is the freedom to put any name on that piece of paper and have it count. An election and democracy are not about going through the motion of putting pieces of paper in a box, it's about what is on those pieces of paper.

Mugabe- we are not fooled. A tyrant dictator who forces his people to put pieces of paper with his name on them in a box is still a tyrant dictator and nothing more.