Zimbabwe – Political Violence and Elections 

Abstract

In the context of the momentous changes to the Zimbabwean polity, the predilection for violent political problem solving is examined. By reference to public data on political violence for the period 1998 to 2018, Zimbabwe is compared with four of its neighbours in SADC that share a common history of armed struggle; Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The analysis shows Zimbabwe to the most violent of the five countries, with most violence aimed at civilians by political militia, and a very significant amount of the violence (46%) occurs during elections. Furthermore, the kind of political violence during elections is considerably more serious than that which occurs outside of elections. The findings provide a cautionary background to the forthcoming elections in 2018.

Source: Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU)