[statered]

Can ya’ll expand on that? I think carter was president when he came to power. Has Carter gone down there to legitimize an election or something?

[Jaysun]

Abel Muzorewa, a bishop in the United Methodist Church, won the first democratic election in the history of Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia) in 1979.

The Carter administration declared that though the 1979 election of Muzorewa it did not merit the United States' support because Mugabe was not involved in the election council. The 1980 election, on the other hand, which Mugabe won largely by threatening violence, the Carter administration declared to be "free and fair," and he lifted sanctions aimed at ensuring democratic elections which had been in place since 1966.

Basically, Carter went against lifting sanctions and supporting the election in 1979 because Mugabe the Marxist didn't get his way. Once Mugabe "won" a year later Carter declared everything peachy.

[Prokopton]

Jimmy Carter was instrumental in refusing to lift the sanctions on Rhodesia after the settlement and the new Constitution and after the election of Bishop Muzorewa. He convinced Muzorewa to agree to new elections after the communist fighters had returned. The new elections were incredibly corrupt with the communists using murder and intimidation on a grand scale. Mugabe won the new election and Jimmy Carter approvingly ended the sanctions. In his first show of magnanimity, Mugabe promptly murdered thousands of the followers of his rival, Nkomo. It’s been a downhill slide ever since. Carter has blood on his hands with his actions concerning Zimbabwe/Rhodesia.

http://www.answers.com/topic/abel-muzorewa