Attached hereto is a verbatim report from a serving member of the Police in Mash East. He witheld his name for obvious reasons but it is a hand written report.

Just as I was typing it up I recd. a call from a serving Policeman friend who is a Chief Insp. pleading with the mdc to not allow postal voting. He is based in Byo. and said they had all been told how they were to vote (postal) and who they were to vote for (ZPF).

Police Force Mandate Date 7/5/08 Time 0900 – 1130.

A meeting has been held called to all members of the police force, Mash East of Provincial HQ. The meeting requires the member to come along with their spouses, and mediate close relatives.

The mission was spearheaded by the Ass. Comm. Pfumvutai. Was this day addressed by Supt. Mumba of PPU (Police Presidential Unit) from Harare Tomlinson Depot.

Quotes:

This Supt Mumba on his address highlighted these issues. “I am talking to the security forces who know how to keep official secrets. As members of the ZRP we are loyal to the President who happens to be the leader of the ruling party, which is Zanu PF”.

“During the previous election, 90% of you officers voted for the opposition party which is MDC, and this is a surprise to me that even to note that at Chikurubi Dept. has a carrying capacity of about 1000 members, but only 20 members voted for the ruling party”.

“I am here with on order from the top to tell you that this time around you don’t have to repeat a mistake. We let you free to go and vote in your wards, knowing that you will vote for Zanu PF one common party. And you betrayed us”.

“The order here is that no single member is going to vote at ward level. Which means that every police officer will vote by POSTAL BALLOT, so that you won’t betray the party again”

“We all agreed here that we are all members of the Zanu PF and every single member is going to cast their ballots in the presence of their Officer in Charge. Whether you are there or not the Officer in Charge will use a Nominal Roll and will cast for you. And this includes those of the C Branch (Nieghbourhood Watch) coz they are as well police officers”.

Supt Mumba went ahead to say “ This is a force, that’s why it is termed Police Force. Because we work by orders and this is an order from the superiors. And this does not only applies to the Police force but to the disciplined forces that are ZNA and ZPS. That now as I speak the other superiors of our friendly force are addressing meetings at different places for the same mandate”.

The following para. is a personal plea from the informant who supplied the above info:

So I as the attendants at the meeting I feel guilty of the rigging ahead of the RUN-OFF election declared by the Zanu PF. I felt shame of the superiors forces, specially when paying attention to the poor salaries, remunerations and working conditions of the junior officers, because they want to defend their luxury lives on the expense of us. So we appeal to the nation at large that this POSTAL BALLOT be abolished because they want to win this RUN OFF through us whilst we are not exercising our condual rights.

(Serving Member).