Word: pf
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...parliamentary majority in the March 29 general election, and claims Tsvangirai also won the presidential race, beating Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, with 50.3% of the vote. The official results have yet to be released, as Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) have demanded a recount. The state press is predicting a run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, and a loose pro-Mugabe force known as the "war veterans" has begun a campaign of intimidation and land seizure across Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai spoke to TIME's Africa bureau chief, Alex Perry, by telephone...
...even moved to declare the dawn of "a new Zimbabwe founded on restoration, not on retribution, equality not discrimination, love, not war, tolerance not hate." He even said, "After Saturday 29th of March, 2008, Zimbabwe will never be the same again." Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, Mugabe and the Zanu-PF seem merely to have been digesting their defeat and plotting their future. And they appear to have concluded that his future depends on Zimbabwe remaining exactly where...
...That request, the election commission's stalling and Zanu-PF's unhurried attitude towards resolving the crisis all seem to indicate Mugabe is playing for time. So, too, do reports quoting diplomats in Harare as saying that Mugabe may issue a presidential decree delaying a run-off between him and Tsvangirai for 90 days. More time would allow Mugabe to mobilize his shock troops-the so-called "veterans" who overran white-owned farms in the late 1990s and early years of this century...
...fear now is that the regime will encourage the veterans to deploy to opposition strongholds across the country. Just where those bastions are located is now all too obvious in the results posted on the sides of polling stations across Zimbabwe. "Our guys voted Zanu-PF, which was a disappointment," said the South Africa-based brother of one white farmer who has held onto his land in northern Zimbabwe. "But in hindsight, it's a blessing in disguise. The next-door farm voted M.D.C., and those guys are pretty worried...
...Zanu-PF's contempt for democracy, paired with a simultaneous need for a veneer of respectability, is symptomatic of Mugabe's leadership style: dictatorial but self-righteous. Johannesburg-based Heidi Holland is one of the few journalists to have met Mugabe more than once. In her book, Dinner With Mugabe, she tries to explain the mystery of Mugabe's mind. "Like the seemingly respectable married man who makes his living as a drug lord, Mugabe holds parallel positions," she writes. "The two are not coordinated in his divided self. While he was indeed the enlightened leader who wanted to develop...