Mugabe's Win Threatens Zimbabwe's Economic Recovery

Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, has led the Southern African nation for 33 years, the past four in a fractious coalition with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a political party made up of two factions, the larger of which is led by Morgan Tsvangirai. In a national election on July 31, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) won 76 percent of the parliamentary seats.

While observers from most neighboring states declared the elections free and peaceful, Western observers, Tsvangirai, and a local voting rights group counter that the election was deeply flawed. They say as many as 1 million voters were either disenfranchised or assigned to wards so far away they could not reasonably make the journey to vote. Tsvangirai plans to challenge the results in court but says his chances of success are slim because the judiciary is “compromised” by Mugabe appointments. With a clear majority in the assembly, Mugabe, 89, no longer needs to rule in a coalition. “We are very happy we have dealt the enemy a blow,” he told party members on Aug 7.