Conclusions

Summary

In 1980, Zimbabwe experienced its first independence election with euphoria and great expectations. These watershed elections were expectated to mark a complete departure from a violent past consequent of ninety years of British colonialism. Instead, a fragile peace agreement, shaky ceasefire and the election itself were all overshadowed by countrywide wartime residual violence before, during and after the election. The elections set a bad precedent in violent acts of intimidation, harassment, torture and extrajudicial killings of political oppenents with impunity. The nationwide trail of violence cannot be explained away by the unstable post-war situation but by the penchant for unbridled power by the new black political elites. The election result won by Zanu PF was a farce, an antithesis of the very freedom and democracy for which a hard-won fourteen-year liberation struggle had been waged. The poll outcome was undoubtedly neither free nor fair.