Zimbabwe's Hijacked Election

Abstract

From 9 to 11 March 2002, more than three million Zimbabwean voters went to the polls—often standing patiently in line for many hours—to cast their ballots for the office of president. In all likelihood a majority of these voters, especially in larger cities such as Bulawayo and Harare, the capital, were hoping to bring a nonviolent end to the despotic two-decade-old rule of 78-year-old President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The means to this goal would be the lawful election to the presidency of Mugabe's main challenger, former labor leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In the event, the voters would see their hopes dashed, but only after the regime deployed tactics whose sheer brutality and underhandedness were without precedent even in the troubled postindependence history of this southern African republic of 11.4 million people. When the fraudulent "contest" was over, Mugabe was declared the winner while Tsvangirai, braving the threat of treason charges, rejected the officially announced result and called for a new vote to be held under close international supervision.