Rhodesian Front

The Rhodesian Front ( RF abbr, dt Rhodesian Front) was a political party in Rhodesia. With its chairman Ian Smith they ruled the country from 1962 to 1979 as a de facto single party.

The Rhodesian Front was born from the Dominion Party, which opposed the transfer of government responsibility to the black majority in the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia. The party therefore slid into conflict with the mother country that his colony only wanted to grant independence if the majority African population will participate in power. As no agreement was reached on this issue to Southern Rhodesia declared without the consent of the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965 itself independent.

In the de facto independent, but internationally unrecognized Republic of Rhodesia, the RF reigned for 14 years virtually unlimited as a de facto single party, with Ian Smith as Prime Minister. The biggest issue in the party was the preservation of the rule of the white minority " in a thousand years." In elections they received, thanks to the electoral system and the extensive exclusion of the African population, always all the seats in Parliament.

1979 general elections, after years of guerrilla war, first held, and power in the country was ceded to the black majority population. By 1987, the RF could still gain the majority of the transitional constitution for whites reserved 20 parliamentary seats.

1981 the party changed its name to the Republican Front, in 1984 Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe.