14 IRI/NDI Zimbabwe International Election Observation Mission Final Report Background Zimbabwe’s ongoing political crisis (and related economic crisis) began in the late 1990s. Mismanagement of government finances by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) led to economic decline, popular protests, and ultimately to the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as a broad-based opposition party with trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai as its leader. However, ZANU-PF was able to retain political power by closing political space and through fundamentally flawed elections in 2000, 2002, 2008, and 2013. As President Robert Mugabe grew older, tensions heightened within ZANU-PF over succession, with the party becoming further factionalized. Efforts to position his second wife and leader of the G40 faction, Grace Mugabe, as his heir apparent brought infighting within ZANU-PF to a head, resulting in Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, leader of the Lacoste faction, being discharged and fleeing the country. However, military intervention and popular protests resulted in President Mugabe being forced from power and Mnangagwa becoming president in November 2017. Political repression by the government, as well as tensions arising over the failure to gain political power, led to repeated splits within the MDC. Throughout, Tsvangirai remained the most viable opposition leader. When Tsvangirai died in February 2018, Nelson Chamisa emerged as the leader of the newly formed MDC Alliance (which brought together the main MDC formation with a number of MDC splinter parties and several other opposition parties). A long-time ZANU-PF senior party operative implicated in past government repression, President Mnangagwa undertook a strategic effort to win international support. He declared four days of national mourning following Tsvangirai’s death; travelled throughout the region to meet with various heads of state; and attended the World Economic Forum – a first for a Zimbabwean president. President Mnangagwa also granted a series of relatively candid interviews to respected international journalists in which he pledged political and economic reforms and a “new Zimbabwe.”