NO ONL ZAPU NO SELLOUT President Robert Mugabe forecast his party's landslide victory long before it happened.
With voter turn out only 58 per cent, apathy was high. All but two seats went to his Zimbabwe African Unity-Patriotic Front, governed since the end of white minority rule in 1980.
Most of the opposition boycotted the poll. The most troublesome candidates for the government were their previous supporters who ran as independents. Some reflect a real frustration among the urban poor.
Real wages have plumr hopes betrayed meted and social services like health and education have been slashed. One in five public sector workers have been sacked.
Foreign debt has increased by 44 per cent to $3.8 billion and debt consumes 30 cents in every dollar of export earnings.
Land remains a highly contentious issue. The failure of the government to transform which has agricultural relations has angered the rural poor who were so important in the liberation struggle.
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Most of the official land "redistribution" was only a recognition of already existing de facto arrangements. Moreover its owners still lack the necessary capital for seeds, fertilisers and oxen to make best use of it.
The large commercial sector, which now includes some black politicians and their relatives, has far easier access to credit and money. They do not rely on the recently dismantled state marketing boards.
Corruption is rife in ruling party circles around the award of land grants and state tènders.
Mugabe's swift responses to past scandals shows that he remains very sensitive to public feeling on these matters.
The main debate in government is over Mugabe's successor. For those radicals left in the ZANU-PF what confronts them is the dismal task of changing its present course.