Political Situation before and after the March 2008 Elections In response to police violence against opposition members and human rights defenders in March 2008, and an ever-deepening economic crisis, SADC mandated then-South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to mediate talks between ZANU-PF and the MDC.7 The talks failed to yield significant results and ZANU-PF and MDC went into the March 2008 general elections in an environment of increasing repression and manipulation of state institutions by ZANU-PF, thereby making the playing field uneven in ZANU-PF’s favor.8 Despite this, for the first time since independence, ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority and its presidential candidate, Robert Mugabe, lost to opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. However, according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Tsvangirai did not get at least “50 plus 1” percent of votes cast, making a presidential run-off necessary. As Human Rights Watch has previously documented, ZANU-PF and its allies unleashed a systematic and widespread campaign of terror to intimidate the electorate into voting for Robert Mugabe in the runoff election held on June 27.9 When Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the poll citing widespread political violence against MDC supporters, Mugabe went ahead with the election and declared himself the winner. For the first time, several African states voiced condemnation. On July 21 ZANU-PF and MDC leaders signed a memorandum of understanding which led, on September 15, to a power-sharing agreement between the parties.10 However, talks stalled over how to share executive power. Efforts by the SADC, through the mediation of Thabo Mbeki, have failed to break the political impasse. 7 Communiqué from the 2007 SADC Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, March 28-29, 2007. 8 Human Rights Watch, All Over Again. 9 Human Rights Watch, “Bullets for Each of You”: State-Sponsored Violence since Zimbabwe’s March 29 Elections, June 2008, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/zimbabwe0608/. 10 “Memorandum of understanding between ZANU-PF and MDC, Harare,” July 21, 2008. “Our Hands Are Tied” 10