Zimbabwe: 1985 General Elections
Extracted from: "Zimbabwe" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 439-441.
The 1985 general elections represented the first major systematic litmus test of how effectively the post-independence government. The elections occurred in two phases and a local constituency system was now introduced though the numbers in each occasionally exceeded the variations stipulated by the Delimitation Commission because of registration deficiencies.
In the first round of polling on 27 June 34 041 white voters were called upon to elect 20 representatives to seats in the House of Assembly still reserved for them in terms of the Lancaster House agreement. The CAZ [Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe] staged a significant comeback winning 18 731 (55%) of the votes and 15 of the 20 white seats. Annoyance over the government's negative treatment of Bulawayo (because it was a PF-ZAPU [Patriotic Front-Zimbabwe African People's Union] stronghold) seems to have contributed to some 73% of white voters in the city's three constituencies supporting the CAZ. Its more general success was attributed to a perception that it would protect white economic and political interests with greater determination.
Four seats in Borrowdale, Marlborough, Makoni, and Avondale, went to the IZG [Independent Zimbabwe Group] which acquired 13 513 (39,6%) of the votes mainly from younger and more affluent voters. The remaining seat went to an independent candidate, Chris Anderson subsequently was made Minister of State for the Public Service. Anderson was to defeat PK van der Byl, former Rhodesian Front cabinet minister and signatory to UDI, in the Harare constituency of Mount Pleasant.
The CAZ campaigned on a platform advocating prosperity through free enterprise and multi-party democracy. It castigated the government for a decline in standards and the IZG for not consulting their constituencies and not being committed to preserving the rights and privileges of the whites. The IZG, for its part urged a strategy of co-operation rather than confrontation with the new order and argued that the CAZ clung to outmoded positions.
In the second round of polling held between 1 and 4 July ZANU-PF [Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front] improved its position by 15% by acquiring 2 233 320 (77.19%) of the votes. It won 64 of the 80 seats reserved for blacks, all of which it had contested. This was seven seats more than it had won in the preceding election. Its victory was total in the Mashonaland Central, East and West districts. In the Midlands district, it displaced four PF-ZAPU parliamentarians.
PF-ZAPU acquired 558 771 (19.3%) of the votes and won 15 seats of the 80 seats it contested - all in its Matabeleland stronghold. In the preceding general elections, it had won five more seats. ZANU-Sithole, which fielded 35 candidates, acquired 36 054 (1.24%) of the votes but won only one seat in the eastern Chipinge constituency of Manicaland on the eastern border of the country. The UANC, which fielded 55 candidates, acquired 64 764 (2.23%) of the votes but, because of their broader dispersal, failed to win even a single seat. The UANC thus lost the three seats it had previously acquired. Its dramatic descent into obscurity from a voter support base of 65% during the compromised 1979 internal settlement election to 8% in 1980 and 2.23% signified its effective demise. The National Democratic Union acquired 295 (0.01%) of the votes and the NFZ acquired 81 (0,003%) both failing to win any seats.
In its campaign, ZANU-PF dwelt upon its achievements in government in the spheres of development, education, medical care, housing, roads, Africanisation, minimum wage legislation, equal pay for women, maternity benefits and foreign relations. It stressed its commitment to scientific socialism and unity based on a single party representing all Zimbabweans while also acknowledging the need for a pragmatism in engaging with the capitalist system. ZANU-PF's significantly better resource base and access enabled it to mount large rallies and make extensive use of posters in constituencies. Allegations that it used government vehicles and property were made but not verified.
PF-ZAPU spoke of the need for nation-building, human rights and the rule of law, restoration of the role of chiefs, self-reliance and development fuelled by external and internal conditions conducive to investment. It accused the government of of corruption, human rights violations and the arrest and detentions of its supporters. It considered the government's resettlement policies inadequate.