page_title: 1980 Southern Rhodesian general election
section_title: White roll
hierarchical_section_title: 1980 Southern Rhodesian general election / Election campaigning / White roll
caption_attribution_description: English: European-roll constituencies in Salisbury, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. Used at the 1979 and 1980 elections.
context_page_description: General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia in February 1980 to elect a government which would govern the country after it was granted internationally recognised independence as Zimbabwe, in accordance with the conclusions of the Lancaster House Agreement. The result was a victory for ZANU, which won 57 of the 100 seats. Its leader, Robert Mugabe became the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe when the country officially became independent from the United Kingdom in April.
context_section_description: Comparatively little interest was shown in the election for the 20 white roll seats, partly because those elected were unlikely to have much influence in the independent Zimbabwe, but mostly because all seats were expected to be won easily by the Rhodesian Front under Ian Smith. Fourteen out of the twenty seats were filled unopposed, and only two candidates in the other seats could put up a reasonable challenge to the Rhodesian Front candidate. One was Dr Timothy Stamps, a newcomer to politics, in the Kopje constituency covering the centre of Salisbury. Stamps advocated co-operation with the new black-led government. In addition, Nick McNally, who had led the liberal 'National Unifying Force' which opposed white dominance, ran in Mount Pleasant in the Salisbury suburbs.
  Twelve out of the 20 Rhodesian Front candidates were reported to favour merging their party with Muzorewa's United African National Council to create a biracial party, following their experience in government together in Zimbabwe Rhodesia. White opinion was generally supportive of Muzorewa's government for including competent Ministers, and hoped that Muzorewa would win enough common roll seats to deprive ZANU-PF of a majority.
caption: Constituencies in Salisbury.
exif: {}