The Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, led by Robert Mugabe, first as Prime Minister with the party simply known as ZANU, and then as President from 1988 after taking over ZAPU and renaming the party ZANU-PF.

Zimbabwe African National Union

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Zimbabwe African National Union was a party founded by Ndabaningi Sithole and Herbert Chitepo in 1963. On 18 March 1975 Herbert Chitepo was assassinated in Lusaka and Mugabe was nominated to lead ZANU. Later that year there was a factional split along tribal lines, and the Ndebele followed Sitole into the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, who renounced violent struggle, while the Shona followed Mugabe with a more militant agenda. ZANU allied itself with the Zimbabwe African People's Union in the Patriotic Front, but they split after achieving majority rule. Mugabe won the 1980 elections.

In 1988 after eight years of low-level civil war termed Gukurahundi, the opposition Zimbabwe African People's Union, (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo, merged with ZANU to form Zanu-PF with the added moniker of Patriotic Front, in what was seen as a step towards a one party state.

ZANU-PF

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Officially, ZANU-PF is socialist in ideology, and is modelled on communist parties in other countries. The party maintain a politburo. However, the party has abandoned much of the egalitarian aspects of communist ideology, instead choosing to pursue a mixed economy. However, Mugabe has since pursued a more populist approach on the issue of land redistribution, encouraging the seizure of large farms, usually owned by the white minority. Officially, this is for the benefit of landless black peasants, but critics of this policy argue that it is to maintain his grip on power and that supporters of his government benefit from the land redistribution much more than the wider landless population.

He has also faced a major political challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, won 56.0 % at the presidential elections of 9 March - 11 march 2002.

At the December 2004 five-year conference, Joyce Mujuru, a Zezeru Shona like Mugabe and whose husband is the retired head of the armed forces, was elevated to the first woman vice-president of the party, at the expense of contender Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his backer Jonathan Moyo the Information minister, and former speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa

The 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections were held on March 31, 2005. The party won 59.6 % of the popular vote and 78 out of 120 elected seats. Later that year, 26 November, it won 43 ot of 50 elected senators.

External links

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• Official website

Authoritarian political parties | Political parties in Zimbabwe

Zanu-PF