Capacity building
Political violence report March 2008: a report by the Zimbabwe human rights NGO Forum
The nature and extent of political violence in Zimbabwe
Authors:
; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
Publisher:
AllAfrica.com, 2008
Based on victims' accounts from across the country, this report records the nature of politically motivated violence and intimidation in the aftermath of the Zimbabwe elections 2008.
Key points highlighted include:
- although the pre-election environment saw less recorded incidences of politically motivated violence as compared to the election periods of 2000 and 2002, pre-election violence remains a worrying trend in Zimbabwean politics
- pre-election violence has been used in the past Zimbabwean elections as an instrument of influencing election outcomes and this, among other administrative irregularities, has marred the electoral process in Zimbabwe in 2008
- it is reported that armed police officers in Mbare watched as supporters of the leading ZANU (PF) party pelted opposition MDC members in clear disregard of their duty to serve and protect all Zimbabwean citizens
- members of the police force have also been reported to have effected arrests of MDC supporters at the instigation of ZANU (PF) youths without prior investigation, and have refused to effect arrests on ZANU (PF) members.
It is further pointed out that the Southern African Development Committee (SADC) Principles and Guidelines for Democratic Elections specifically provide for the free participation of political parties, the public media and voters in the electoral processes of their country. This participation is to be without coercion or intimidation and the ruling party must not be permitted to use state resources to gain unfair advantage in the election. These conditions have been breached by the Zimbabwean government, who have neglected the core democratic principle that Zimbabweans have the right to freely choose whom to elect into government.
