On this day 10 years ago, Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations because of human rights violations and electoral fraud occurring during the country’s presidential elections of that year. Zimbabwe had joined the Commonwealth on 1 October 1980, in the same year that Robert Mugabe’s ZANU party was first elected to power, following many years of guerrilla fighting against the white-minority government.
In the 1980s, Mugabe’s government engaged in the Matabeleland massacres, killing and torturing tens of thousands of political opponents. Mugabe was elected president in 1990 with 83% of the vote in elections which were not free or fair. In 1996 he was re-elected with 92.7% of the vote after his opponents withdrew because of rigging by Mugabe. In 2002 paramilitary groups conducted a systematic campaign of intimidation against suspected opposition supporters, and Mugabe was announced the winner with 56% of the vote.
In the 2008 elections, Morgan Tsvangirai was announced to have won 47.9% of the votes against Mugabe’s 43.2%, necessitating a run-off, although it is strongly suspected that Tsvangirai actually won outright. Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the run-off to stop systematic human rights abuses by Mugabe’s militias. The 88-year-old Mugabe is currently threatening to call new elections this year.