LRF is a member of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network. Posters and fliers meant to encourage people to register to vote in the forthcoming elections were allegedly confiscated.
The raid, which was reportedly conducted without a search warrant, came on the heels of the summoning of ZESN officials by one Sergeant Dzvimbu of Hwange.
“Later in the day yesterday (Tuesday), two police details visited the Hwange offices of a ZESN member organisation, Legal Resources Foundation offices and arbitrarily confiscated hundreds of ZESN posters and flyers meant for distribution in the province.
“The materials were confiscated following unsubstantiated and false allegations that ZESN had conducted voter education from the 13th to the 17th of May 2013 without the approval and accreditation from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC),” said ZESN in a statement.
The statement quoted Settie Ncube, the ZESN Taskforce Chairperson for Matabeleland North, who said the two plainclothes police officers demanded to know the persons responsible for distributing the voter education materials before confiscating the posters and flyers.
ZESN condemned the police action. “ZESN reiterates that the continued arrest and criminalisation of civic society organisations for allegedly conducting “voter education” without seeking permission from ZEC is disturbing.
“The heavy-handed actions of the law enforcement authorities are a contravention of the Constitution of Zimbabwe as they arbitrarily impede on fundamental rights and freedoms of access to information, assembly and information, amongst others,” said ZESN.
Lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have been engaged to deal with the issue.
Post published in: News