Despite broad international condemnation and a
tremendous thirst among the people of Zimbabwe
for change, the Zimbabwe African National Union
– Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government
succeeded in systematically manipulating the
March 2002 election process to ensure another sixyear
term for President Robert Mugabe. The
strategic use of state violence and extra-legal electoral tinkering authorised by President Mugabe
effectively thwarted the will of the people from being heard.
If Zimbabwe’s long slide toward chaos and
increasing violence is to be reversed, a concerted regional and wider international effort will be needed. At this point, the best way forward is to
create a clear division of labour between regional diplomatic efforts aimed at brokering a transitional
power-sharing arrangement and an intensification
of pressure by other members of the international
community aimed at isolating the regime,
highlighting its illegitimacy and demanding fresh
elections.
The hard-line position of the wider international
community should reinforce the leverage of the region’s diplomacy. If the latter fails, the
international community, hopefully joined by the
region at that point, can then further escalate pressures on the regime. At the end of the day, President Mugabe’s electoral manipulations may
have been so brazen and his defiance of diplomatic efforts so thorough that he will force the hand of
the region and the broader international community to act decisively against an escalation of violence
and entrenchment of illegitimacy.
