They cited key obstacles as being ongoing political violence, registration irregularities, a shambolic voters’ roll, the recent police crackdown on civil society, unfair application of the law and a compromised judiciary.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition spokesperson, Thabani Nyoni, bemoaned an increase in hate speech and said failure so far by the three parties in the government of national unity to agree on the date for elections was also cause for concern.
Director of Human Rights NGO Forum, Abel Chikomo, said the arrests and intimidation of civil society leaders had extended to lawyers and the judiciary, as both the security forces and Zanu (PF) stepped up their campaign of terror ahead of the polls.
“The case of Justice Charles Hungwe is an example of how the judiciary is susceptible to being targeted. Hungwe might even be relieved of his duties soon,” said Chikomo. “The unfair arrest and detention of human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, is also a clear sign that the state will stop at nothing in its bid to silence human rights champions.”
Phillan Ndebele of the Action Support Centre bemoaned the problems he and his South African colleagues faced in getting accreditation during the referendum. He said the accreditation process was highly cumbersome and bureaucratic, adding that the SA civil society observers were only accredited a few hours before the referendum and were only based in Harare.
Post published in: News