zim politics

from left to right, Prof A.Mutambara, Cde R.Mugabe,M. Tsavangirai, Cde T. Mbeki

 Until the 2008 parliamentary elections, Zimbabwe was effectively a one-party state, ruled over by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

After the 29 March 2008 relatively free and fair general election won by the then opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), ZANU PF engaged in violent political repression against pro-democracy activists especially after its leader, Robert Mugabe lost to the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the Presidential poll.

 Dismissing Mugabe’s sham electoral victory were the AU and SADC observer missions joined by the EU, the Confederation of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) and individual countries such as Botswana and Zambia who were very clear on the illegitimacy of the Harare regime.

ZANU PF and its leader, Mugabe is slowly returning to the pre-GPA situation as it prepares for a violent election. The spate of arrests of pro-democracy forces and Members of Parliament from the MDC indicate that the ZANU PF violent machinery is at work.

 A power-sharing deal agreed after the polls raised hopes that Mr Mugabe might be prepared to relinquish some of his powers.

The partnership was shaky and often acrimonious, but the coalition succeeded in agreeing a new constitution, which was approved by referendum ahead of fresh elections in July 2013.

However, following Mr Mugabe's re-election as president in 2013 and Zanu-PF's gaining of a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary poll, the power-sharing coalition was ditched. Mr Mugabe continues to preside over a nation whose economy is in deep crisis, where poverty and unemployment are endemic and political strife and repression commonplace