Mugabe faces defeat in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwes The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has claimed  an overwhelming lead in the countrys elections for president, claiming  that Morgan Tsvangarai, 56, the MDCS  leader, has captured twice as  many votes as current president Robert Mugabe.
MDC secretary-general  Tendai Biti said that Tsvangarai had captured 60 percent of the vote  against to Mugabes 30 percent.
Recent reporting of the voting  indicated that 3 million excess ballot papers had been printed, fueling  fears that the government might rig the vote.
Many Zimbabweans are  hoping that new leadership will be able to reverse the countrys  economic downslide. Once considered an economic powershouse and food  exporter,  Zimbabwes economy was worth $360 billion a decade ago, but  now the nations money supply amounts to just $98 million. The country  now relies on humanitarian food aid.
Inflation in the country  running 100,000 percent.  The national debt stands at $1.4 quadrillion  (thousands of trillions) Zimbabwean dollars, up from 22 trillion in  January.
Zimbabwes unemployment rate stands at 80 percent, education  and health systems are decaying, and life expectancy is among the worst  in the world.
Mugabe, 84, who has ruled the country for 28 years,  blamed the countrys economic collapse on Western sanctions which he  said were meant to hurt the country.
Mugabe had been recently  criticized by political observers for printing trillions of Zimbabwean  dollars to fund a 700 percent pay raise  for civil servants and gifts of  cars and tractors to rural chiefs.  Independent economists say  inflation has now risen to 200 percent and predict it could rise to a  dizzying 500 percent in May.