Zimbabwe was formed on 18 April 1980 after a four year protracted civil war against the British Colonial Masters who colonised the country in 1890. In 1980 Robert Mugabe won the majority vote by garnering 63% and his ruling party, ZANU PF... more
Zimbabwe was formed on 18 April 1980 after a four year protracted civil war against the British Colonial Masters who colonised the country in 1890. In 1980 Robert Mugabe won the majority vote by garnering 63% and his ruling party, ZANU PF won 57 seats out of 120 in Parliament. The rest of the votes were divided amongst other contesting political parties. Since 1980, Robert Mugabe was the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, according to the requirements of the Lancaster House Constitution of Zimbabwe, which was negotiated at Lancaster House in Britain, from 10 September to 15 December with 47 plenary sessions. In 1987 the constitution was amended in order to abolish the Prime Minister post and endorse Robert Mugabe as the President. Although there was political competition in Zimbabwe, the opposition parties were not so strong to challenge the legitimacy of Robert Mugabe’s government. In early 1990s Robert Mugabe adopted the IMF structural adjustment policies which were unfavourable to the country’s economic growth. This resulted in civil uprising in 1998 when prices of basic commodities started to rise and the government cuts in public expenditure. This ignited the formation of the strongest opposition Party known as Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai. From this point, Robert Mugabe was accused of skewing the electoral process in his favour in order to retain power as the President of Zimbabwe. This scenario motivated the author of this thesis to analyse the electoral legislation and show that it has gaps which gives politicians opportunities for manipulation. The aim of this thesis is to show that the design of the electoral laws and framework within which elections take place, provides space for manipulation by incumbent political parties. In order to successfully carry out the objectives set out in this thesis, library desk based research was done through the use of secondary data sources such as journal articles, reports, books and newspapers. The secondary data helped to link academic theories which help to explain the electoral manipulation in Zimbabwe. A comparative analysis was also done in order to learn best practices from Ghana and Kenya and see if they can be replicated in Zimbabwe, so that the legislation can be improved. The research concludes that the Electoral Act of Zimbabwe (2:13), provides space for ruling political parties to manipulate the electoral process in their favour. Even if the ZANU PF led government changes, any elected political party has higher changes of replicating the same methods of electoral manipulation. To this end this thesis recommends that the Electoral Act should be amended because a complete overhaul may not be feasible due to the costs of resources required for making new public policies.
