Harare small military force of the British South Africa Company, and named Fort Salisbury after the British prime minister Lord Salisbury. Company administrators demarcated the city and ran it until Southern Rhodesia achieved responsible government in 1923. Salisbury was thereafter the seat of the Southern Rhodesian (later Rhodesian) government and, between 1953 and 1963, the capital of the Central African Federation. It retained the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed Harare on the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence. Harare is Zimbabwe's leading political, financial, commercial, and communications centre, as well as a trade centre for tobacco, maize, cotton, and
Vote counting for the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election that the party had decided that, if a run-off was necessary, Mugabe would participate. Meanwhile, about 400 pro-Mugabe war veterans, who were described in a report from "The Times" as Mugabe's "most feared thugs", marched silently through Harare in what was viewed as an attempt to intimidate the opposition. The MDC faction led by Mutambara said that it would back Tsvangirai in a second round, stressing that removing Mugabe from power was its highest priority. Speculation in early April included the possibility that the 21-day period between the first and second rounds would be extended to 90 days by a