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I left Zimbabwe the day after Robert Mugabe was reinaugurated as president. Watching on state television as the old man swore fealty to the country he has ruined, I packed my bag for the long haul back to London. It is winter now in Zimbabwe, meaning the days are like an English spring in their lightness and warmth, and the nights plunge to just a few degrees above zero. Everyone I talk to affects a jaded determination to survive, but there will be cold nights ahead.
I have seen many Zimbabwean elections. My first was in 1980 when, as a member of the Commonwealth observer group, I helped monitor the transition to independence and Mugabe’s first electoral triumph. I have attended almost all campaigns or elections since, including all of this year’s polls—the March elections and the June presidential runoffs. Over the years I have seen—close up—the hopes of the majority of Zimbabweans dashed by a corrupt and vicious oligarchy which cloaks itself in the rhetoric of anti-colonialism and self-determination.
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