Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe has applied to rejoin the Commonwealth, the group said Monday, marking a major step in the country’s international re-engagement after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year.
Mugabe angrily pulled Zimbabwe out of the bloc of former British colonies in 2003 after its membership was suspended over violent and graft-ridden elections the previous year.
The Commonwealth said it had received a letter dated May 15 from Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa applying to re-join.
Member countries “very much look forward to Zimbabwe’s return when the conditions are right,” said Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in a statement from London.
“Zimbabwe’s eventual return to the Commonwealth, following a successful membership application, would be a momentous occasion.”
Scotland confirmed that the Commonwealth would send observers to elections due in July or August, the first polls since Mugabe was ousted in November after a brief military takeover.
Mugabe was replaced by his former deputy Mnangagwa, a veteran ruling ZANU-PF party loyalist who was backed by senior military officers.
Mnangagwa has vowed to hold fair and free elections, and has pledged to revive the moribund economy by repairing international ties and attracting foreign investment.
Scotland called for “a credible, peaceful and inclusive election that restores citizens’ confidence, trust and hope in the development and democratic trajectory of their country.”
Britain said last month that it would strongly support Zimbabwe returning to the Commonwealth.
Zimbabwe had fractured relations with the West under Mugabe, who had held power since independence from Britain in 1980.
The government in Harare was not immediately available to comment.
If readmitted, Zimbabwe will become the fifth country to re-join the voluntary association of mostly former territories of the British empire, after Gambia, South Africa, Pakistan and Fiji.
The Gambia re-joined the Commonwealth in February this year after the impoverished west African nation was in 2013 suddenly pulled out of the bloc by ex-president Yahya Jammeh.
The other countries to have quit the organization are Ireland, which left in 1949 and the Maldives which exited in 2016.
The Commonwealth brings together 53 countries representing 2.4 billion people, under a charter pledging commitment to democracy, human rights and rule of law.
The last country to join was Rwanda, in 2009.
The organization also holds an Olympics-style multi-sport event every four years, most recently in Australia’s Gold Coast in April.
Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth at the height of violent land seizures, when white farmers were evicted in favor of landless black people in a policy that wrecked the agriculture sector and triggered national economic collapse.
Zimbabwe applies to rejoin Commonwealth
Zimbabwe applies to rejoin Commonwealth
- Zimbabwe has applied to rejoin the Commonwealth, marking a major step in its international re-engagement after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year.
- Britain said last month that it would strongly support Zimbabwe returning to the Commonwealth.
Bangladesh readies for polls, worry among Hasina supporters
- The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold elections on February 12, its first since the uprising
- Hasina was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in Nov. and her former ruling party has been outlawed
Gopalganj: Bangladesh is preparing for the first election since the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina, but supporters of her banned Awami League (AL) are struggling to decide whether to shift their allegiance.
In Gopalganj, south of the capital Dhaka and a strong bastion of Hasina’s iron-grip rule, residents are grappling with an election without the party that shaped their political lives for decades.
“Sheikh Hasina may have done wrong — she and her friends and allies — but what did the millions of Awami League supporters do?” said tricycle delivery driver Mohammad Shahjahan Fakir, 68, adding that he would not vote.
“Why won’t the ‘boat’ symbol be there on the ballot paper?” he said, referring to AL’s former election icon.
The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold elections on February 12, its first since the uprising.
Hasina, who crushed opposition parties during her rule, won landslide victories in Gopalganj in every election since 1991.
After a failed attempt to cling to power and a brutal crackdown on protesters, she was ousted as prime minister in August 2024 and fled to India.
She was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity by a court in Dhaka in November, and her former ruling party, once the country’s most popular, has been outlawed.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the AL ban as “draconian.”
“There’s so much confusion right now,” said Mohammad Shafayet Biswas, 46, a banana and betel leaf seller in Gopalganj.
“A couple of candidates are running from this constituency — I don’t even know who they are.”
As a crowd gathered in the district, one man shouted: “Who is going to the polling centers? We don’t even have our candidates this time.”
‘DEHUMANISE’
Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, hailed from Gopalganj and is buried in the town.
Statues of Rahman have been torn down nationwide, but in Gopalganj, murals and statues are well-maintained.
Since Hasina’s downfall, clashes have broken out during campaigning by other parties, including one between police and AL supporters in July 2025, after which authorities filed more than 8,000 cases against residents.
Sazzad Siddiqui, a professor at Dhaka University, believes voter turnout in Gopalganj could be the lowest in the country.
“Many people here are still in denial that Sheikh Hasina did something very wrong,” said Siddiqui, who sat on a government commission formed after the 2025 unrest.
“At the same time, the government has constantly tried to dehumanize them.”
This time, frontrunners include candidates from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest religious party.
Both are from Hasina’s arch-rivals, now eyeing power.
“I am going door to door,” BNP candidate S.M Zilany, 57, told AFP, saying many would-be voters had never had a candidate canvass for their backing.
“I promise them I will stand by them.”
Zilany said he had run twice against Hasina — and was struck down by 34 legal cases he claimed had been politically motivated.
This time, he said that there was “a campaign to discourage voters from turning up.”
Jamaat candidate M.M Rezaul Karim, 53, said that under Hasina, the party had been driven underground.
“People want a change in leadership,” Karim told AFP, saying he was open to all voters, whatever their previous loyalties.
“We believe in coexistence; those involved in crimes should be punished; others must be spared,” Karim said.
Those once loyal to Hasina appear disillusioned. Some say they had abandoned the AL, but remain unsure whom to support.
“I am not going to vote,” said one woman, who asked not to be named.
“Who should I vote for except Hasina? She is like a sister.”
