1980 Southern Rhodesian general election

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First party Second party   Leader Robert Mugabe Joshua Nkomo Party ZANU–PF ZAPU Last election N/A N/A Seats won 57 (Common Roll) 20 (Common Roll) Seat change N/A N/A Popular vote 1,668,992 (Common Roll) 638,879 (Common Roll) Percentage 63.0% (Common Roll) 24.1% (Common Roll)   Third party Fourth party   Leader Ian Smith Abel Muzorewa Party RF UANC Last election 28 (White Roll) 51 Seats won 20 (White Roll) 3 (Common Roll) Seat change 8 48 Popular vote 13,621 (White Roll) 219,307 (Common Roll) Percentage 83.0% (White Roll) 8.3% (Common Roll)
Prime Minister before election Abel Muzorewa UANC Prime Minister-designate Robert Mugabe ZANU–PF

Politics of Rhodesia
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General elections were held inSouthern Rhodesia between 14 February and 4 March 1980 to elect the members of theHouse of Assembly of the firstParliament of the independentZimbabwe.^[1][2] As stipulated by the newConstitution of Zimbabwe produced by theLancaster House Conference, the new House of Assembly was to comprise 100 members, 80 of whom would be electedproportionally by province by all adult citizens on a common roll, and 20 of whom would be elected insingle-member constituencies bywhites on a separate roll.

The result was a victory forRobert Mugabe'sZANU–PF, which won 57 of the 80 common roll seats, giving it a majority in the 100-member House of Assembly.Joshua Nkomo'sZimbabwe African People's Union, contesting the election as the Patriotic Front, won 20 of the 80 common roll seats, with the remaining 3 going toAbel Muzorewa'sUnited African National Council.Ian Smith'sRhodesian Front won all 20 of the white roll seats, with most of its candidates running unopposed. As a result of the election, Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe's first prime minister upon internationally recognised independence on 11 April 1980.

There was widespread violence during the election.^[3]

Agreement at Lancaster House on the fundamentals of the constitution was relatively easy. The new House of Assembly was to comprise 100 members, of whom 80 would be elected on a common roll by every adult citizen. The intention was to move to election in single member constituencies but owing to the lack of an electoral roll and the timescale, the first election was to be conducted by provinces using closed lists put forward by the political parties. Voters had their fingers marked with an invisible ink that showed up underultraviolet light to detect attempts to vote twice. To qualify for seats in a province, a party needed to achieve a threshold of 10% of the vote, and then the seats among the eligible parties were divided proportionately.

The remaining 20 members of the House of Assembly were to be elected by the 'white roll' comprising those people (mostlywhite) who had previously qualified to vote. This election was conducted in 20 single member constituencies which had been drawn up by a Delimitation Commission in 1978 and were the same as those used in the1979 'internal settlement' election. Voters who were registered on the white roll were ineligible to participate in the common roll election.

Following the passage inZimbabwe Rhodesia of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (Amendment) No. 4 Act 1979 on 11 December 1979, and the arrival ofLord Soames as Governor the next day, the 14-yearUDI rebellion came to an end, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia returned to legality under British law as the colony ofSouthern Rhodesia. The United Kingdom Parliament then passed the Zimbabwe Act to put in place the country's independent constitution. On 21 December 1979, the formal agreement to a ceasefire in theRhodesian Bush War (or second Chimurenga) was signed; Lord Soames also signed proclamations lifting the ban on ZANU-PF and theZimbabwe African People's Union and granting a general amnesty to all those who had taken up arms in the war.British Army forces then set up 16 assembly points throughout Southern Rhodesia where Patriotic Front guerillas could disarm and return to civilian life; 18,300 did so by the deadline of 6 January.^[4]

While the Rhodesian authorities were in charge of administration on the ground, the formal Returning Officer was Sir John Boynton (1918–2007) who had just retired as chief executive ofCheshire County Council.

Over Christmas 1979, many former Patriotic Front soldiers returned to their former homes to prepare for the election.^[5][6] For ZANU-PF, its military leaderJosiah Tongogara was killed in a car crash inMozambique. Tongogara was known to be a supporter of the two Patriotic Front parties, ZANU-PF and ZAPU, fighting the election with a joint list, and it was immediately speculated that his death was arranged by opponents of this policy.^[7]

On 13 January,Joshua Nkomo, leader of ZAPU, returned to Southern Rhodesia after three years' exile and addressed a rally of between 100,000 and 150,000 atHighfield township inSalisbury.^[8] He was followed on 27 January byRobert Mugabe of ZANU-PF, who addressed 200,000 (the crowd would have been larger had organisers not turned some away for safety reasons).^[9][10]

Abel Muzorewa, who had led the unity government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, campaigned vigorously on behalf of hisUnited African National Council which had won the most votes the previous year. However, attendance at his rallies was reported to be poor, and Muzorewa's habit of inveighing against other Zimbabwean politicians was thought to detract from his appeal as a man of unity.^[11]James Chikerema, who had fallen out with Muzorewa in June 1979, entered the field with hisZimbabwe Democratic Party which grew increasingly close to ZAPU (he held unity talks with Nkomo);^[12] Chikerema complained about intimidation by supporters of ZANU-PF.

ZANU-PF presented a moderate manifesto that showed little of the party's professed alliance with communist China, although party speakers often threatened that the war might continue if the party did not win. The party complained bitterly to Lord Soames about official bias against it. The Registrar-General of Elections refused to put the party's intended logo on ballot papers because it contained an image of anAK47 rifle and he considered it detrimental to public order.^[13] ZANU-PF posters were confiscated if they were considered inflammatory, and many party activists and some candidates were arrested.^[14] Soames responded by accusing ZANU-PF of intimidating voters in 23 out of the 56 districts of the colony.

ZAPU caused something of a stir by deciding to fight the elections under the name "Patriotic Front".^[13] They campaigned most heavily in theNdebele areas, where the ZAPU army, ZIPRA, made particular strides in trying to integrate with the Southern Rhodesian forces.

Comparatively little interest was shown in the election for the 20 white roll seats, partly because those elected were unlikely to have much influence in the independent Zimbabwe, but mostly because all seats were expected to be won easily by theRhodesian Front underIan Smith. Fourteen out of the twenty seats were filled unopposed, and only two candidates in the other seats could put up a reasonable challenge to the Rhodesian Front candidate. One was DrTimothy Stamps, a newcomer to politics, in the Kopje constituency covering the centre of Salisbury. Stamps advocated co-operation with the new black-led government. In addition, Nick McNally, who had led the liberal 'National Unifying Force' which opposed white dominance, ran in Mount Pleasant in the Salisbury suburbs.

Twelve out of the 20 Rhodesian Front candidates were reported to favour merging their party with Muzorewa's United African National Council to create a biracial party, following their experience in government together in Zimbabwe Rhodesia.^[11] White opinion was generally supportive of Muzorewa's government for including competent Ministers, and hoped that Muzorewa would win enough common roll seats to deprive ZANU–PF of a majority.

• 
  Rural constituencies.
• 
  Constituencies in Salisbury.
• 
  Constituencies in Bulawayo.

Party		Common roll			White roll			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	ZANU–PF	1,668,992	62.99	57				57
	ZAPU	638,879	24.11	20				20
	United African National Council	219,307	8.28	3				3
	ZANU–Ndonga	53,343	2.01	0				0
	Zimbabwe Democratic Party	28,181	1.06	0				0
	National Front of Zimbabwe	18,794	0.71	0				0
	National Democratic Union	15,056	0.57	0				0
	Rhodesian Front				13,621	83.04	20	20
	United National Federal Party	5,796	0.22	0				0
	United People's Association of Matabeleland	1,181	0.04	0				0
	Independents				2,781	16.96	0	0
Total		2,649,529	100.00	80	16,402	100.00	20	100
Valid votes		2,649,529	98.05
Invalid/blank votes		52,746	1.95
Total votes		2,702,275	100.00
Registered voters/turnout					29,566	–
Source:African Elections Database

Polling day was 14 February 1980. A dagger (†) indicates a member of theZimbabwe Rhodesia House of Assembly for that constituency. A double dagger (‡) indicates a white non-constituency member.

"The Election Commissioner concluded that, despite some distortion of voting as a result of intimidation in certain areas, the overall result would broadly reflect the wishes of the people."^[15]

"These Commonwealth observers also knew that intimidation could be overt, or subtle and covert; but there was a limited amount they could do about this. "^[16]

• 1980 elections in Africa
• 1980 in Zimbabwe
• Elections in Southern Rhodesia
• February 1980 in Africa
• 1980 elections in the British Empire
• March 1980 in Africa

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