Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: Republic of Zimbabwe

Type: independent, a British-style parliamentary democracy

Capital: Harare

Political subdivisions: eight provinces

Legal system. Roman-Dutch

Branches· legislative authority resides in a Parliament consisting of a 100-member House of Assembly (with 20 seats reserved for whites) and a 40-member Senate (10 elected by white members of the House, 14 elected by the other members of the House; 10 chiefs, 5 from Mashonaland and 5 from Matabeleland, elected by members of the Council of Chiefs; 6 appointed by the President, on the advice of the Prime Minister); executive authority lies with a Cabinet led by the Prime Minister; the High Court is the superior judicial authority

Government leaders: Rev. Canaan Sodindo BANANA, President (since April 1980); Robert Gabriel MUGABE, Prime Minister (since April 1980)

Suffrage: universal over age 18; for at least seven years after independence (1980), white, mixed and Asians vote on a separate roll for 20 seats iri the House of Assembly

Elections: last held July 1985

Political parties and leaders: Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), Joshua Nkomo; Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (CAZ), lan Smith; Independent Zimbabwe Group (1ZG), Bill Irving; Zimbabwe African National Union - Sithole (ZANU-S), Ndabaningi Sithole, others failed to win any seats in Parliament

(China listed in alphabetic order)

Voting strengths (July 1985 elections) ZANU (also known as ZANU-PF), 64 seats; ZAPU, 15 seats; CAZ, 15 seats; 12G, 4 seats;

ZANU-S, I seat, independents, 1

Communists: negligible

Member of: AfDB. Commonwealth, FAO, G-77, GATT, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, INTERPOL, ITO, NAM, OAU, SADCC, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO

NOTE: The information regarding Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.