FOREWORD
2023 will certainly go down as the year that we will not easily forget. It was the year in which we underwent an election like no other in the country let alone in the region’s history. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum deployed election observers across the country to monitor, document and report on adherence to due process and human rights violations during elections. Through its members and accredited local observers, the Forum identified, verified, and documented a number of electoral irregularities.
From the delayed opening of polling stations, absence of voting material in polling stations, ballot paper anomalies, non-appearance of names on voters’ roll, contestations around night voting, voter intimidation, raids on CSO offices, and unjustified arrests of the same – the 2023 harmonized election was marred with election irregularities rendering it a topsy – turvy election devoid of integrity and constitutionalism. Unsurprisingly, various foreign and regional election observer missions condemned the electoral process as shambolic.
In addition, through its Research and Documentation Unit, the Forum produced a research publication which documented an unprecedented wave of post-election retributive violence in the aftermath of the 2023 Zimbabwe Harmonised Election. This manifested firstly in the arbitrary arrests of prominent opposition political actors, human rights defenders and those perceived as anti-establishment or politically undesirable persons.
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