The 9-10 March 2002 presidential election is the decisive date for Zimbabwe’s intensifying crisis. With political violence escalating, new repressive legislation has highlighted the government’s efforts to clamp down on the media, the judicial system, civil society and the political opposition in
order to retain power by any means. International
action, not merely further expressions of concern, is needed before time runs out on the possibility of conducting the freer and fairer election that is the
best chance to head off destabilisation that would inevitably cross the country’s borders and affect all southern Africa.
