Hard to say if the election result was real or not. I'm sure a lot of Zimbabweans are sick and tired of starving to death and getting raped for failing to fall down and worship Mugabe five times a day. On the other hand, Mugabe has tons and tons of street cred, and always will, for standing up to whitey in Rhodesia (with the help of the Soviet and Chinese militaries, of course). Blacks would rather be poor and miserable and tortured (and free of whitey) than prosperous but under the man's yoke.