Zimbabwe’s multi-layered crisis – CMI Brief; June 2010 Vol 9 No 3
Front illustration from CMI Brief -June 2010 Vol 9 No 3
“The Zimbabwean crisis illustrates the complexity of attempting to defeat a party of liberation through elections in a region in which the legacies of anti-colonial struggles still have a great deal of resonance. Within this resonance, the demands for human rights and political democratisation can be constructed as an extension of a Western regime change agenda. The crisis also reveals the limitations of SADC as a regional organisation for dealing with ruling parties that refuse to adhere to its formal democratic principles by resting their tenure on a liberation struggle and coercion. With these limitations the Zimbabwean opposition is forced to fight for space within the GPA in hopes of creating the conditions for an election that would allow for the possibility of a power transfer…” [Click here to download CMI Brief]
[This CMI Brief is part of the CMI project Election processes, liberation and democratic change in Africa led by Professor Lise Rakner and Professor Helge Rønning.]
