Robert Mugabe

===Electoral campaign: 1980===
Returning to Salisbury in January 1980, Mugabe was greeted by a supportive crowd.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=9|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=70}} He settled into a house in [[Mount Pleasant, Harare|Mount Pleasant]], a wealthy, white-dominated suburb.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=13|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=71}} Machel had cautioned Mugabe not to alienate Rhodesia's white minority, warning him that any white flight after the election would cause economic damage as it had in Mozambique.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=9|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=101|3a1=Tendi|3y=2011|3p=313}} Accordingly, during his electoral campaign, Mugabe avoided the use of Marxist and revolutionary rhetoric.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=9}} Mugabe insisted that in the election, ZANU would stand as a separate party to ZAPU, and refused Nkomo's request for a meeting.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=38|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=70}} He formed ZANU into a political party, known as [[Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front]] (ZANU–PF).{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=70}} Predictions were made that ZANU–PF would win the election on the basis of the country's ethnic divisions; Mugabe was Shona, a community that made up around 70% of the country's population, while Nkomo was Ndebele, a tribal group who made up only around 20%.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=12}} For many in the white community and in the British government, this outcome was a terrifying prospect due to Mugabe's avowed Marxist beliefs and the inflammatory comments that he had made about whites during the guerrilla war.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=11}}

During the campaign, Mugabe survived two assassination attempts.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=11|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=71}} In the first, which took place on 6 February, a grenade was thrown at his Mount Pleasant home, where it exploded against a garden wall.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=11|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=71}} In the second, on 10 February, a roadside bomb exploded near his motorcade as he left a [[Masvingo|Fort Victoria]] rally. Mugabe himself was unharmed.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=11|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=71}} Mugabe accused the Rhodesian security forces of being responsible for these attacks.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=11}} In an attempt to quell the possibility that Rhodesia's security forces would launch a coup to prevent the election, Mugabe met with [[Peter Walls]], the commander of Rhodesia's armed forces, and asked him to remain in his position in the event of a ZANU–PF victory. At the time Walls refused.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=12}}

The electoral campaign was marred by widespread [[voter intimidation]], perpetrated by Nkomo's ZAPU, [[Abel Muzorewa]]'s [[United African National Council]] (UANC), and Mugabe's ZANU–PF.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=10|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=73}} Commenting on ZANU–PF's activities in eastern Rhodesia, Nkomo complained that "the word ''intimidation'' is mild. People are being terrorised. It is ''terror''."{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=10}} Reacting to ZANU–PF's acts of voter intimidation, Mugabe was called before Soames at Government House. Mugabe regarded the meeting as a British attempt to thwart his electoral campaign.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|pp=10–11}} Under the terms of the negotiation, Soames had the power to disqualify any political party guilty of voter intimidation.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=11}} Rhodesia's security services, Nkomo, Muzorewa, and some of his own advisers all called on Soames to disqualify ZANU–PF. After deliberation, Soames disagreed, believing that ZANU–PF were sure to win the election and that disqualifying them would wreck any chance of an [[Peaceful transition of power|orderly transition of power]].{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=11}}

In [[1980 Southern Rhodesian general election|the February election]], ZANU–PF secured 63% of the national vote, gaining 57 of the 80 parliamentary seats allocated for black parties and providing them with an [[Majority of the entire membership|absolute majority]].{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=12|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=13|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=73}} ZAPU had gained 20 seats, and UANC had three.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=12}} Mugabe was elected MP for the Salisbury constituency of [[Highfield (parliamentary constituency)|Highfield]].{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=156}} Attempting to calm panic and prevent white flight, Mugabe appeared on television and called for national unity, stability, and law and order, insisting that the pensions of white civil servants would be guaranteed and that private property would be protected.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=13|2a1=Holland|2y=2008|2p=xiii|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=74}}