4 big questions Zimbabwe faces at 36

According to the Washington Post article, the FOURTH big question is: Are there parallels with other African regimes?

“What is happening in Zimbabwe seems familiar,” the article says. “Several West African countries recently experienced transfers of political power. In Burkina Faso, the government of Blaise Compaore succumbed to popular protests in 2014, less than a year after three prominent defections from the governing party. In Nigeria in 2015, a diverse coalition of opposition parties booted the governing party out of power.

“Ken Opalo, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, predicted in the Monkey Cage that Compaore would withstand the popular protests. If Compaore’s swift fall was a surprise, a future leader of Zimbabwe from outside the ZANU-PF umbrella would be an even greater upset. Zimbabwean politicians outside of ZANU-PF may hope for a Nigerian-style succession, but it seems unlikely that they will manage to replicate it.

“At the moment, Zimbabwe seems headed toward a post-Mugabe political conflagration — with few clues about how severe it will be, or who will emerge to lead the country next.”

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