Rhodesia’s Last Leader Can’t Vote
HARARE, Zimbabwe — With victory already assured for President Robert Mugabe’s party, the main excitement in Saturday’s first day of parliamentary elections came when the country’s last white ruler was not allowed to vote.
Ian D. Smith, 76, who as prime minister of Rhodesia waged an unsuccessful war to keep nationalists like Mugabe from coming to power, was told his name was not on the voters’ roll.
The head of the government’s election department said Smith had registered in southwestern Zimbabwe, where he has a farm, and thus could not vote in the capital district.
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