ZIMBABWE is not officially a one party state, but today it is embarking on a one candidate election. Bishop Abel Muzorewa's decision last night to pull out of the presidential poll leaves Mr Robert Mugabe unchallenged for the post he has held since independence in 1980.
The retired bishop, who in 1979 served as prime minister in a failed coalition of black moderates and white settlers, announced he was withdrawing because the electoral law was massively biased in favour of Mr Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwean African National Union - Popular Front (ZANU-PF). Yesterday he failed in an attempt to have the country's Supreme Court postpone the election until a challenge to the electoral law could be heard.
The bishop's withdrawal will not affect the result of the election. Mr Mugabe was going to win easily, anyway. It is, however, a further blow to ZANUPF's efforts to portray Zimbabwe as a multi party state.
Neither Bishop Muzorewa nor Rev Ndabaningi Sithole another veteran of the liberation era who withdrew from the race on Tuesday - were regarded as serious candidates. Currently facing somewhat unlikely charges that he tried to assassinate Mr Mugabe, Rev Sithole says the state security forces are trying to frame him with the collusion of his wife, whom he now plans to divorce. Bishop Muzorewa has played little part in politics since he was denounced as a sell out in the last days of settler rule.
The four divided opposition parties boycotted the poll from the start. with the backing of many human rights organisations on the grounds that the contest was rigged in Mr Mugabe's favour.
According to Mr Mike Auret of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, ZANU-PF still enjoys enormous popularity as the party of liberation, but it has copper fastened its position by undemocratic means. Its manipulations ensure that there is no opposition, he says. ZANU-PF uses the government machinery to scare off or undermine potential opponents.
ZANU-PF is the only party to qualify for public funding under rules which it drew up Zimbabwe's first past the post electoral system makes it very difficult for any dissident parties to win the 15 seats needed to obtain state campaign funding. The party's ability to buy votes As increased by its access to massive government patronage. Goods distributed as part of government drought relief programmes are usually presented in ZANU-PF's strongholds as gifts from the party.
Elections are run by officials appointed by Mr Mugabe and only he is entitled to full access to the results. Opposition groups and human rights organisations say electoral abuses are widespread. In last year's parliamentary elections one independent candidate, former ZANU-PF member Mrs Margaret Dongo, was defeated by a party stalwart in the Harare South constituency.
Ms Dongo successfully challenged the poll and easily won the by election, held under close domestic and foreign scrutiny. She is now the only independent MP in parliament, where ZANUPF holds 147 of the 150 seats.
With Mr Mugabe sure to sweep the poll, the only thing at issue this weekend is how many of Zimbabwe's 4.9 million voters bother use their vote. The 1990 turn out was only 54 per cent, but voting in recent by elections was as low as 20 per cent. Such a low vote would damage Mr Mugabe's image as a southern African statesman and reduce his credibility in the eyes of foreign donors.
Despite the foregone nature of the contest, the President has been energetically campaigning. As in previous elections, Mr Mugabe has wooed poor voters by attacking the country's 100,000 whites, promising to redistribute land held by white farmers.
White run farms are responsible for the great bulk of Zimbabwe's agricultural wealth, however, and any moves against the free market and property rights would fall foul of the World Bank and the IMF. Dependent on foreign capitalism for the money that runs his political machine, the formerly Marxist President is likely to forget these promises in the days ahead.
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was born 72 years ago into the Shona speaking majority of what was then called Rhodesia. Having trained as a teacher, he became active in the growing opposition to British rule. In 1963 he was one of a number of leading dissidents who split from Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe Africa People's Union to form the Zimbabwe Africa National Union.
In 1965 the Rhodesian Front led by Mr Ian Smith announced a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) to frustrate British attempts to introduce majority rule.
Mr Mugabe was released from prison in 1974 to take part in negotiations and when they failed he left for Mozambique, where he took over as leader of ZANU. In January 1976 ZANU and ZAPU were persuaded to accept the common banner of the Patriotic Front and the bush war against white rule intensified.
In 1979, faced with white emigration and a faltering economy, Mr Smith tried to set up a power sharing deal with Archbishop Abel Muzorewa. This failed to halt the insurgency, however, and in 1979 Britain's Margaret Thatcher brokered the Lancaster House accords leading to majority rule.
The subsequent election pitted Mr Mugabe against Mr Nkomo. Mr Mugabe won comfortably.
Although he had promised to seize white land and wealth for redistribution, Mr Mugabe proved conciliatory in victory. A unity government with ZAPU proved short lived, however.
Mr Nkomo was later accused of plotting against the government and in early 1983 Mr Mugabe sent troops into the province of Matabeleland, homeland to Mr Nkomo's minority Ndebele tribe. Thousands of civilians are believed to have been massacred before the troops were recalled. In 1987 Mr Nkomo nevertheless accepted an offer to rejoin the government and ZANU and ZAPU were merged into ZANU-Popular Front.