Interviewed villagers bemoaned that some village heads had openly declared their allegiance to Zanu (PF) while threatening their subjects with unspecified action if they vote for the MDC-T in the next elections.
The villagers claimed that they are being force marched to attend Zanu (PF) gatherings by the village heads who have deviced a registration system to identify people defying their directives.
The development, said the villagers, had led to some MDC-T activists shunning the party’s activities for fear of being identified for victimisation.
The villagers, who were speaking at a voter education exercise programme, however said the political situation in the area had improved as compared to 2008 although they said the intimidation coming from Zanu (PF) supporters and the village heads had created doubts over the possibility of peaceful elections.
Chrisia Goreraza (58), said: “Our major problem so far is that some village heads are forcing people to attend Zanu (PF) meetings and people are only going because they fear being victimised if they defy the order. There are several of our supporters that have been threatened because they have chosen to defy the orders from the village heads.”
Another villager, Tongai Gondo (73) blamed village heads and Zanu (PF) officials in the area for failing to embrace political tolerance. “The environment seems to be calm but we are concerned with some village heads and Zanu (PF) officials who are threatening people against supporting the MDC-T. As a result, our supporters are now afraid of coming out in the open because they fear that they would be victimised like what happened in 2008,” said Gondo.
Kainos Dzinoera (65) said: “Known MDC-T supporters are living in fear here because they have been threatened with war in the event of an MDC victory. Sometimes, people are even afraid to put on our party’s t-shirts because of the threats coming from the village heads.”
Other villagers raised concern about the “chaotic” voter registration process saying a lot of them were disenfranchised. Said Alice Makufa (52): “The process was chaotic here and we had some people who voted in 2008 but were told that their names were not appearing in the voters’ roll when the registration process started.
So as a result, we are not sure if we will be able to vote during the elections because it’s possible that one can be told again that your name is not appearing on the voters’ roll.”
Post published in: News