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
Second round of voting in the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election at 7 pm. Mugabe and his wife Grace voted in Highfield Township, near Harare, and he said that he was "optimistic [and] upbeat". Tsvangirai denounced the vote, describing it as "an exercise in mass intimidation", and called on other countries to not recognise the results, saying that to do so would mean "denying the will of the Zimbabwean people and standing in the way of a transition that will deliver peace and prosperity". According to official media, turnout was high and the MDC's call for a boycott was not followed. "The Herald" described turnout as "massive". There were reports that