Zimbabwe elections - a manifestation of regional ailments : Southern Africa - issue in focus

On 3 August 2013, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced the election results of Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections, confirming victory for Robert Mugabe and his political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since the southern African nation won its independence from Great Britain in 1980. Though Zimbabweans have always voted Mugabe into power, more recently elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by blatant corruption and violence on the part of ZANU-PF and its supporters. Those hoping that the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in 2008, the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in 2009 and the adoption of a new constitution in 2013 would have brought change in Zimbabwe were sorely disappointed by the election results. In accord with the GPA's stipulations, the GNU has now been dissolved, and Mugabe will no longer have to share power.