Zimbabwe’s ‘Patriotic Bill’ has made free and fair elections impossible

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Robert Rotberg is the founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s program on intrastate conflict. His latest books are Things Come Together: Africans Achieving Greatness and Overcoming the Oppressors. In the lead-up to Zimbabwe’s election, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has passed a law that puts his opponents at considerable risk. Zimbabwe is just the latest of many unfree countries, such as China, Turkey and Iran, that are using repressive tactics to prohibit criticism of those in power. Last week, Zimbabwe’s parliament, which is controlled by Mr. Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party, passed the Criminal Code Law Amendment Act, or Patriotic Bill, which bans...