Zimbabwe has 25,000 permanent police members but the force registered 70,000 additional ‘members’ for the special vote to be held on July 14-15. Inside sources labelled the move as vote rigging on the part of President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF).
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission received 87,316 applications for the special vote. Police applied for 70,000, the Zimbabwe National Army 3 087, Prisons services 2,000 and ZEC 44,000. ZEC chairperson, Rita Makarau, said her organisation had no mechanism in place to determine whether applications for the special vote were genuine.
Investigations carried out by The Zimbabwean at police camps revealed that police wives were being enrolled under the special vote. Some of them are registered as polling agents and were promised $600,00 for their services. Treasury released $11 million for the special vote.
Police wives suspected to be MDC were left out of the process.
High-ranking sources at Police General Headquarters revealed that police officers and their spouses were threatened into voting for Mugabe and Zanu (PF).
Meanwhile, there are confirmed reports from PGHQ that two Marondera-based police officers might lose their jobs for letting their wives attend the MDC-T election manifesto launch at Rudhaka Stadium last Sunday. The women’s mobile phones and sim cards were confiscated and are being used by police as evidence against them.
“While our friends were victimised for being seen near the stadium, Zanu (PF) is conducting door to door campaign meetings with impunity,” said one woman.
Police families at Dombotombo Police camp were virtually held captive by the riot police at the weekend to prevent them from going to the MDC-T election manifesto launch. Residents said the camp was sealed off at dawn and opened in the evening, after the gathering at Rudhaka had dispersed.
Questions forwarded to police national spokesperson, senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, regarding the election related issues were not responded to at the time of going to print.
Post published in: News