Election
Southern Rhodesian general election, 1980
Under British administration and Lancaster House arrangements, Southern Rhodesia held elections from 14 February to 4 March 1980, in which the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, led by Robert Mugabe, won a majority of seats.
What happened
According to the scholarly reference work Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), led by Robert Mugabe, won 57 of the 80 common-roll seats with 63.0% of the vote (1,668,992 votes); ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo, won 20 seats concentrated in Matabeleland.[1] International observers, including a Commonwealth Observer Group, monitored the election, and the Group's official verdict concluded the election was "a valid and democratic expression" of the electorate's will, notwithstanding intimidation allegations raised against multiple parties during the campaign.[2]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: In the Southern Rhodesian general election held from 14 February to 4 March 1980, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), led by Robert Mugabe, won 57 of the 80 common-roll seats with 63.0% of the vote (1,668,992 votes).
- Nohlen, Dieter; Krennerich, Michael and Thibaut, Bernhard, Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook (Oxford University Press, 1999) , Zimbabwe chapter, election results table. Source record
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2.
Claim: The Commonwealth Observer Group, which monitored the February-March 1980 Rhodesian election, concluded in its report that the election was "a valid and democratic expression" of the electorate's will, notwithstanding intimidation allegations raised against multiple parties during the campaign.
- Commonwealth Observer Group report on the 1980 Rhodesian election (The Commonwealth) link, Observer Group report summary. Source record