Mugabe's State House (Harare)

 presidential palace  Add category

 Upload a photo

Since 1998 Mugabe's policies have increasingly elicited domestic and international denunciation. His government pursued a costly intervention in the Second Congo War, expropriated thousands of white-owned farms, printed hundreds of trillions of Zimbabwean dollars triggering hyperinflation, and has been accused of harassing and intimidating political opponents, particularly members of the Movement for Democratic Change. Zimbabwe's economy spiraled downward, with food and oil shortages, and with massive internal displacement and emigration. During this period Mugabe's policies have been denounced in the West and at home as racist against Zimbabwe's white minority. Mugabe has described his critics as "born again colonialists", and both he and his supporters claim Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of imperialism, aggravated by Western economic meddling.

Mugabe lost the first round of the 2008 election to prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, 43% to 48%, though neither candidate secured the 50% necessary to avoid a runoff election. The MDC claimed that the official results had been altered to force a run-off vote, since their returns suggested that Tsvangirai had received 50.3% of the vote.