by John Welford

Created on: January 05, 2009   Last Updated: September 17, 2009

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country situated in Southern Africa, bordered by Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique. In Zimbabwe, elections are held after every five years to choose a new government. Zimbabwe's 2008 elections were referred to in the local media as historic, since they were the first to be harmonized since Independence. They involved elections for MPs, councillors, senators, and the post of President.

It is amazing, however, that the 2008 election has become a crisis that continues to the present day. On March 29, Zimbabweans went to the polls in huge numbers with the intention of expressing their democratic right. The elections themselves went ahead very smoothly, according to reports from regional observers. Whereas elections for MPs, councillors, and senators went well, it is the presidential elections that have, to this day, brought the country to a standstill.

Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential election with more than 47% of the votes as compared with Mugabe's 42%, as reported in the local media. The question is, why is Zimbabwe still in crisis? The answer is that there is still an unresolved dispute and there is no government in place to run the day-to-day affairs of the country, as would be expected in a state where the government is democratically elected. Zimbabwe is in crisis because this political stalemate has had a negative impact on the economy, society, and the everyday lives of the entire population. This is evidenced by the observation of one international civic group, the International Crisis Group, as stated in its policy briefing (African Briefing No. 51, 21 May 2008), that "the 29 March 2008 elections have dramatically changed Zimbabwe's political landscape".

It is alleged that, following the 29 March 2008 election in which ZANU(PF) was soundly defeated, the election results were then withheld. This lasted for five weeks, amid pressure from Western leaders, and international and African civic society. The UN, the AU (African Union) and the SADC (Southern African Development Community) called for the release of the results to no avail. President Mbeki of South Africa, as mediator, continued to shield Mugabe, alleging that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe. The genesis of the crisis came about when Mugabe was told that he had been defeated in the Presidential polls, by a ZEC (Zimbabwe Election Commission) official on 1 April 2008 (Crisis Group interview, senior military official, Harare, 28 April 2008).

Thus, the March 2008

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