Zimbabwe 1980 General Elections
General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia in February 1980 to elect a government that would take over from the colonial government after the Lancaster House Agreement. The election was won by the Zanu-PF and its leader Robert Mugabe became the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Canaan Banana became the first President.
the 1980 Elections had separate rolls, a common roll and a white roll. The common roll, which elected 80 of the 100 House of Assembly seats, was for Africans while the white roll was for Europeans. Zanu-PF won 63% of the common roll, and Joshua Nkomo's Zapu 24.1%. Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front got 83% of the white roll.
Independence celebrations, attended by the heads of states and representatives of over 100 countries, were held later that year on 18 April 1980.
Results
| Party | White roll | Common roll | Total seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||
| Zanu | – | – | – | 1,668,992 | 63.0 | 57 | 57 |
| Zapu | – | – | – | 638,879 | 24.1 | 20 | 20 |
| Rhodesian Front | 13,621 | 83.0 | 20 | – | – | – | 20 |
| United African National Council | – | – | – | 219,307 | 8.3 | 3 | 3 |
| ZANU-Ndonga | – | – | – | 53,343 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zimbabwe Democratic Party | – | – | – | 28,181 | 1.1 | 0 | 0 |
| National Front of Zimbabwe | – | – | – | 18,794 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 |
| National Democratic Union | – | – | – | 15,056 | 0.6 | 0 | 0 |
| United National Federal Party | – | – | – | 5,796 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 |
| United People's Association of Matabeleland | – | – | – | 1,181 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Independents | 2,781 | 17.0 | 0 | – | – | – | 0 |
| Invalid/blank votes | – | – | 52,746 | – | – | – | |
| Total | 16,402 | 100 | 20 | 2,702,275 | 100 | 80 | 100 |
| Source: African Elections Database | |||||||
Provincial common roll results
| Province | NDU | NFZ | ZAPU-PF | UANC | ZANU-N | ZANU-PF | ZDP | Other parties | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Votes (%) | |
| Manicaland (11) | 1,837 | 0.6 | 1,283 | 0.4 | 4,992 | 1.6 | – | 19,608 | 6.2 | – | 16,843 | 5.4 | 263,972 | 84.1 | 11 | 5,251 | 1.7 | – |
| Mashonaland Central (6) | 1,216 | 0.7 | 1,086 | 0.6 | 3,947 | 2.3 | – | 14,985 | 8.6 | – | 3,671 | 2.1 | 146,665 | 83.8 | 6 | 2,446 | 1.4 | UNFP 914 (0.5%) |
| Mashonaland East (16) | 2,359 | 0.4 | 1,668 | 0.3 | 28,805 | 4.6 | – | 75,237 | 11.9 | 2 | 9,499 | 1.5 | 508,813 | 80.5 | 14 | 4,466 | 0.7 | UNFP 1,593 (0.3%) |
| Mashonaland West (8) | 2,211 | 0.8 | 2,589 | 0.9 | 37,888 | 13.4 | 1 | 28,728 | 10.2 | 1 | 4,688 | 1.7 | 203,567 | 71.9 | 6 | 3,261 | 1.2 | – |
| Matabeleland North (10) | 1,840 | 0.5 | 4,517 | 1.1 | 313,435 | 79.0 | 9 | 30,274 | 7.6 | – | 3,218 | 0.8 | 39,819 | 10.0 | 1 | 1,333 | 0.3 | UNFP 1,340 (0.3%), UPAM 729 (0.2%) |
| Matabeleland South (6) | 927 | 0.5 | 2,494 | 1.4 | 148,745 | 86.4 | 6 | 5,615 | 3.3 | – | 694 | 0.4 | 11,787 | 6.8 | – | 775 | 0.5 | UNFP 619 (0.4%), UPAM 452 (0.3%) |
| Midlands (12) | 2,218 | 0.6 | 3,087 | 0.9 | 94,960 | 27.1 | 4 | 30,245 | 8.6 | – | 5,792 | 1.7 | 209,092 | 59.7 | 8 | 3,387 | 1.0 | UNFP 1,330 (0.4%) |
| Victoria (11) | 2,448 | 0.7 | 2,070 | 0.6 | 6,107 | 1.9 | – | 14,615 | 4.5 | – | 8,938 | 2.7 | 285,277 | 87.3 | 11 | 7,262 | 2.2 | – |
References
