Politics of Zimbabwe - Political Developments Since The Lancaster House Agreement

Political Developments Since The Lancaster House Agreement

The Zimbabwean Constitution, initially from the Lancaster House Agreement a few months before the 1980 elections, chaired by Lord Carrington, institutionalizes majority rule and protection of minority rights. Since independence, the Constitution has been amended by the government to provide for:

• The abolition of seats reserved for whites in the country's Parliament in 1987;
• The abolition of the office of Prime Minister in 1987 and the creation of an executive presidency. the office was restored in 2009; and
• The abolition of the Senate in 1990 and the creation of appointed seats in the House of Assembly. A Senate was reintroduced in 2005.

The elected government controls senior appointments in the public service, including the military and police, and ensures that appointments at lower levels are made on an equitable basis by the independent Public Service Commission.

ZANU-PF Robert Mugabe, elected Prime Minister in 1980, revised the constitution in 1987 to make himself President. President Mugabe's affiliated party won every election from independence on April 18, 1980, until it lost the parliamentary elections in March 2008 to the Movement for Democratic Change. In some quarters corruption and rigging elections have been alleged. In particular the elections of 1990 were nationally and internationally condemned as being rigged, with the second-placed party, Edgar Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement, winning only 20% of the vote. Presidential elections were held in 2002 amid allegations of vote-rigging, intimidation, and fraud and also in March 2008.

Ethnic rivalry between the Shona and Ndebele has played a large part in Zimbabwe's politics, a consequence of the country's borders defined by its British colonial rulers. This continued after independence in 1980, during the Gukurahundi ethnic cleansing liberation wars in Matabeleland in the 1980s. This led to the political merger of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) with the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) to form ZANU-PF and the appointment of Nkomo as Vice President.

During the course of 2005, with the Mugabe's future in question, factionalism within the Shona has increased. In October 2005 it was alleged that members of the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC have held secret meetings in London and Washington to discuss plans for a new Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe. On February 6, 2007, Mugabe orchestrated a Cabinet reshuffle, ousting ministers including 5-year veteran Minister of Finance Herbert Murerwa.