The following letter by George M. Houser, Executive Director of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), on the 1980 independence election in
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The Zimbabwe African Nation Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) headed by Robert Mugabe, has won an amazing and overwhelming victory in the unprecedented election in
Now that the election results are known, the most obvious thing to say is that black people of
A second observation is that the harassment and intimidation practiced by the security forces, the police and auxiliaries against ZANU-PF and to a lesser extent against Nkomo’s Patriotic Front (PF) did not work as expected. We were told again and again by local ZANU-PF leaders that the strong arm methods of the military forces of the government would turn the people against the party favored by the white minority, the UANC. This is in fact what happened.
A third observation is that Lord Soames has no alternative to asking Mugabe to form a government. ZANU-PA has an absolute majority in the House of Assembly. It was feared that the British, in order to keep Mugabe out of power, might ask a combination of parties, each holding only a minority of seats in parliament to form a government. If this had been done, it could have caused serious problems. But now this is obviated.
Although there may be cries of “foul” and “fraud” in the election by some, the overall judgement of observers is that the election reflected the views of the majority of the people of
There is not hope that a government of true majority rule will be accepted by all parties and a new
George M. Houser
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