Peace is Annoying: The Ins and Outs of the Zimbabwean Electoral System

Note: I don't know why two paragraphs are blacked out, but if you highlight the area with your mouse, voila, there it is.

Increased reports of violence related to the March 29 elections in Zimbabwe should be raising eyebrows in the international community. Known members of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party are attacking members of the opposition MDC party, in one instance leading to the hospitalization of 5 MDC supporters, who were ambushed while campaigning. Villagers are fleeing violence in the Makoni district, where night-attacks were reportedly led by a prominent ZANU-PF activist after a rally failed to draw a sizeable crowd.

The government is restricting access to media outlets and threatening those that enter the country without its permission: “An Information Ministry spokesman says the government is aware of attempts to turn journalists into election observers, or smuggle in observers.” I would say that Mugabe and the ZANU-PF have something to hide, but they aren’t really trying to hide their efforts to obstruct the election. Open intimidation has characterized Mugabe’s rule from the beginning. This is a man who, in a speech to Parliament in 1982, commented regarding alleged dissidents, "Some of the measures we shall take are measures which will be extra-legal....An eye for an eye and an ear for an ear may not be adequate in our circumstances. We might very well demand two ears for one ear and two eyes for one eye." Brazen—and he meant what he said. (And hopefully one day he will stand trial for the mass killings and other reprisals referred to by that statement.)

Since his days as a rebel leader in colonial Rhodesia, Mugabe has yearned for a one-party state under his consolidated control, and has made repeated claims throughout his career that he has no intention of relinquishing power. [See Martin Meredith’s book Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe. B&N is the only place I found online that has the most recent version (in my super quick search), hence the link.] The presence of a few international observers is clearly not motivating Mugabe towards respecting democratic processes.

Another Kenya? I hope not, but I’m not a particularly optimistic person. According to the Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa, there is currently "so much peace, but peace is annoying some people.”