Speaking at a dialogue meeting facilitated by Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) at Chenhara in Mwenezi last week, the concerned villagers said the Zanu PF Councilor and ruling party officials threatened to eliminate members of opposition parties ahead of the 2018 elections.
The villagers said Councilor Mudavose instructed all potential voters to submit their names to local traditional leaders to enable them to acquire proof of residence letters. Traditional leaders were urged to issue proof of residence documents to gold panners in the Lundi River to make sure that they would register to vote in Mwenezi district. “We are concerned about the cases of intimidation by Zanu PF officials here in Mwenezi district. The Zanu PF officials promised to employ crude tactics to win the forthcoming elections,” said one youth. It was also revealed during the COTRAD dialogue meeting that, Zanu PF officials instructed village heads to collect serial numbers of registration slips from villagers who would have registered to vote.
COTRAD peace committee members in Mwenezi district are deeply worried about intimidation and threats of political violence soon after the commencement of the Biometric Mobile Voter Registration on 10 October 2017. COTRAD therefore calls on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to enforce the electoral code of conduct to combat politically motivated violence.
Speaking at a dialogue meeting facilitated by Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) at Chenhara in Mwenezi last week, the concerned villagers said the Zanu PF Councilor and ruling party officials threatened to eliminate members of opposition parties ahead of the 2018 elections.
Forcing a entrench dictatorship like Zanu PF that is determined to stay in power at all cost to abandon its undemocratic practices and hold free, fair and credible elections is going to be a serious challenge for us all. The challenge becomes mission impossible if those supposedly fighting for free and fair elections are pulling in opposite directions.
We can force Zanu PF to end its culture of political violence and vote rigging by demanding the implementation of the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Those who believe they can achieve the same by going around the country holding these COTRAD meeting are misleading the nation, especially those in the rural areas.
There have been countless of such COTRAD meetings and yet the problem has not gone away and as the political temperature has started to rise as we approach elections the cases of human rights violations have started to go up. There is no nation in the whole human history that has transformed a ruthless dictatorship by appeasement.
Those facilitating these COTRAD meetings are not fighting to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but are instead seeking to extend its rule by making a big song and danger about ending it whilst undermining the practical initiatives to end it.
“COTRAD peace committee members in Mwenezi district are deeply worried about intimidation and threats of political violence soon after the commencement of the Biometric Mobile Voter Registration on 10 October 2017. COTRAD therefore calls on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to enforce the electoral code of conduct to combat politically motivated violence,” said the report.
This is utterly, utterly hopeless! The people of Zimbabwe have awaited for the last 37 years for the country’s first ever free, fair and credible elections and, with this lot, the nation will wait in vain!
Hey villagers , tell them to go shove it !