United African National Council

The United African National Council (UANC) is a political party in Zimbabwe. It was briefly the ruling party during 1979–1980, when its leader Abel Muzorewa was prime minister.

History

The party was founded by Muzorewa in 1971.<ref name="EB">Template:Cite web</ref> Running as African National Council independents, it won six of the eight African seats in the House of Assembly in the 1974 general elections. The party was renamed the United African National Council in 1977,<ref name=EB/> but did not contest the 1977 general elections.

Following the Internal Settlement of 1978, the party won the 1979 elections, winning 51 of the 100 seats, resulting in Muzorewa becoming prime minister. However, the new government failed to win international recognition due to its exclusion of the African nationalist ZAPU and ZANU in negotiations and following the Lancaster House Agreement, early elections were held in April 1980. The UANC won only three seats as ZANU–PF took power.

After failing to win a seat in the 1985 and 1990 elections, the party joined with other opposition parties to form United Parties to support Muzorewa in the 1996 presidential election, but he subsequently pulled out (albeit with his name remaining on the ballot). United Parties also unsuccessfully contested the 2000 parliamentary elections.

The party contested the 2018 general elections but received just 1,889 votes.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Votes	%	Votes	%	Result
		First Round		Second Round
1996	Abel Muzorewa	72,600	4.80%	—	—	Lost Template:Nay
2023	Gwinyai Henry Muzorewa	7,358	0.17%	—	—	Lost Template:Nay

National Assembly

Election	Party leader	Votes	%	Seats	Change	Position	Result
1974	—	1,590	53.36%	Template:Composition bar	New	Template:Increase 2nd	Template:No2
1979	Abel Muzorewa	1,212,639	67.27%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 51	Template:Increase 1st	Template:Yes2
1980		219,307	8.28%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 48	Template:Decrease 3rd	Template:No2
1985		64,764	2.24%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 3	Template:Steady 3rd	Template:No
1990		11,191	0.53%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	Template:Decrease 4th	Template:No
2000		18,606	0.75%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	Template:Increase 3rd	Template:No
2018	Gwinyai Henry Muzorewa	1,889	0.04%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	Template:Decrease 18th	Template:No
2023		574	0.01%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	Template:Increase 13th	Template:No

See also

• List of political parties in Zimbabwe
• Politics of Zimbabwe