Zanu (PF) unleashes violence ahead of weekend elections

By Tichaona Sibanda
26 October 2006

MDC supporters in Mudzi West in Mashonaland East have been forced to stay indoors following an orgy of violence unleashed by local Zanu (PF) candidates before the forthcoming rural district council elections.

In Manicaland, police details are reportedly disrupting MDC meetings and arbitrarily arresting and beating up senior party officials in the province. The attacks on the MDC supporters in Muzavazi area have resulted in a number of houses being burned to the ground and several activists sustaining broken limbs.

MDC youth chairman for Mashonaland East Samuel Kamundarira said a delegation from his party has been to Nyamapanda police station where they lodged reports and requested that police there investigate the incidents..

‘We saw the member-in-charge there and told him of the beatings and burnt houses. He knew of the incidents but from what we could see, he was powerless to rein in the culprits, the majority of whom are the candidates in the district,’ Kamundarira said.

Meanwhile police in Harare said Wednesday they would be geared up to deal with elements bent on fanning violence. The state controlled Herald reported yesterday that police had put measures in place to ensure peaceful elections while the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said preparations for the polls scheduled for the weekend were on course.

Despite these assurances, their officers have taken over the duties of Zanu (PF) militias by intimidating and beating up MDC supporters. According to MDC spokesman in Manicaland Pishai Muchauraya, police officers called off a meeting in Nedziwa in Chimanimani and arrested two officials who they detained at Cashel police station.

The two officials were tortured behind bars, according to Muchauraya. The same has happened in Makoni West where several MDC meetings have been cancelled by the police.

‘What is surprising us is that we were given permission by police commanders to have these rallies but we’ve seen that in the last hours before the rallies we get policemen in uniform calling off these rallies. They are now Zanu (PF) functionaries,’ Muchauraya said.