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General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 to elect the President and Parliament.〔 Because of Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, the elections were expected to provide incumbent President Robert Mugabe with his toughest electoral challenge to date. Mugabe's opponents were critical of the handling of the electoral process, and the government was accused of planning to rig the election. Human Rights Watch said that the election was likely to be "deeply flawed."〔("Mugabe accused of election-rigging plan" ), CNN, 23 March 2008.〕 No official results were announced for more than a month after the first round.〔MacDonald Dzirutwe, ("Zim heads for run-off" ), Reuters (''IOL''), 2 May 2008.〕 The failure to release results was strongly criticised by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which unsuccessfully sought an order from the High Court to force their release. An independent projection placed its leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the lead, but without the majority needed to avoid a second round, whilst the MDC declared that Tsvangirai won a narrow majority in the first round and initially refused to participate in any second round.〔("Zimbabwe opposition rejects run-off" ), Al Jazeera, 10 April 2008.〕 After the recount and the verification of the results, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced on 2 May that Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote and Mugabe 43.2%, necessitating a run-off,〔 which was to be held on 27 June 2008.〔("Zim run-off set for 27 June" ), Sapa-Associated Press (''IOL''), 16 May 2008.〕 Despite Tsvangirai's continuing claims to have won a first round majority, he decided to participate in the second round.〔("Zimbabwe MDC accept run-off vote" ), Al Jazeera, 10 May 2008.〕〔("Tsvangirai to run in second round" ), BBC News, 10 May 2008.〕 The period following the first round was marked by political violence. ZANU-PF and the MDC each blamed the other's supporters for perpetrating the violence; Western governments and prominent Western organisations blamed ZANU-PF for the violence.〔(【引用サイトリンク】12 'violent' MDC supporters held: Africa: Zimbabwe: News24 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】VOA News – Zimbabwe Sets Date for Runoff Amid Increasing Violence )〕 On 22 June 2008, Tsvangirai announced that he was withdrawing from the run-off, describing it as a "violent sham" and saying that his supporters risked being killed if they voted for him.〔Angus Shaw, ("Zimbabwe opposition leader pulling out of election" ), Associated Press, 22 June 2008.〕 The second round of elections went ahead with Mugabe as the only actively participating candidate, although Tsvangirai's name remained on the ballot.〔("UN impasse irks Zimbabwe opposition" ), Al Jazeera, 28 June 2008.〕 Mugabe won the second round by an overwhelming margin and was sworn in for another term as President on 29 June.〔("Mugabe begins new term as criticism of one-man election mounts" ), AFP, 29 June 2008.〕〔("Zimbabwe: President Mugabe Wins Run-Off, Sworn in" ), ''The Zimbabwe Guardian'' (allAfrica.com), 29 June 2008.〕〔("President Sworn in, Appeals for Unity" ), ''The Herald'' (allAfrica.com), 30 June 2008.〕 In the Parliamentary elections Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) lost its majority in the House of Assembly for the first time since independence in 1980, as the two factions of the MDC won most of the seats;〔("Mugabe's Zanu-PF loses majority" ), BBC News, 2 April 2008〕 a month after the election, the MDC factions merged.〔("Zimbabwe’s MDC factions reunite" ), SABC News, 28 April 2008.〕〔("Opposition reunites in Zimbabwe" ), BBC News, 28 April 2008.〕 ==Background== In late 2006 a plan was proposed that would have delayed the elections to 2010, at the same time as the next parliamentary election, which was said to be a cost-saving measure. This would have lengthened President Mugabe's term by two years.〔("Mugabe set to rule until 2010" ), IRIN, 14 December 2006.〕 However, there was reportedly dissent within the ruling ZANU-PF regarding the proposal, and it was never approved. In March 2007, Mugabe said that he thought the feeling in the party favoured having the presidential election in 2008, and moving the parliamentary election up by two years instead. He also said that he would be willing to stand for another term if chosen by the party.〔("Mugabe ready for 2008 elections" ), DPA (''IOL''), 12 March 2007.〕 On 30 March 2007, it was announced that the ZANU-PF Central Committee had chosen Mugabe as the party's candidate for another term in 2008, that presidential terms would be reduced to five years instead of six, and that the parliamentary election would also be held in 2008.〔("Zimbabwe's Mugabe to stand in 2008 poll" ), Reuters (''Sydney Morning Herald''), 31 March 2007.〕 Later, information was leaked from the same meeting that ZANU-PF had adopted the position of making Mugabe president-for-life.〔("ZIMBABWE: ZANU-PF wants to make Mugabe president for life" ), IRIN, 30 July 2007.〕 On 25 January 2008, the date of the election was announced as 29 March. A spokesperson for the faction of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai denounced this as "an act of madness and arrogance",〔("'Mugabe has slapped Mbeki's efforts'" ), Sapa-AFP (''IOL''), 25 January 2008.〕〔("Zimbabwe sets March date for poll" ), BBC News, 25 January 2008.〕 while the leader of the other MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, said that a free and fair election could not be held under the existing conditions, calling for a new constitution to be adopted prior to the election.〔 Talks between the MDC and ZANU-PF collapsed following the announcement of the election date; the MDC had wanted the dialogue to affect the election, while ZANU-PF wanted to hold the election on schedule in March and for any changes agreed in the talks only to take effect afterwards.〔Celean Jacobson, ("Harare dialogue is dead – MDC" ), Sapa-Associated Press (''IOL''), 22 February 2008.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zimbabwean general election, 2008」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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