#BYELECTIONS
The bans on rallies marked a fresh low in Zimbabwean politics and prove that in 2018,
government just intended to window dress since it was fresh from a coup.
On 13 April 2018, three
months before the
harmonised elections, Zanu PF
National Commissar and
leader of the war veterans,
Victor Matemadanda said
“ If (the then MDC Alliance
leader and presidential
election candidate) Chamisa
wants a debate, maybe he can
engage the Zanu PF youth
league, that is his level. We
can’t imagine the President
taking time off serious bread
and butter issues to respond
to a goat that is scratching the
walls from outside.”
Wind down to 2022 February,
Vice President Constantino
Chiwenga, while addressing
Zanu PF supporters in
Kwekwe, claimed that
Chamisa, now leader of the
newly formed CCC, and his
supporters were like ‘little
Goliaths’ that needed to be
crushed with a huge stone like
lice until nothing remained for
the flies.
It is such pronouncements
from political leaders that
incite citizens into political
violence and as the ZPP
recorded in the 2018 elections
and the just-ended 2022 byelections, nothing much has
changed and if at all, the
political and human rights
situation in Zimbabwe has
gotten worse in the past four
years and we illustrate this in
this section.
In July 2018, a month before
the national election, ZPP
recorded 294 politically
motivated human rights
violations and in March 2022,
the month when the country
held by-elections in some 28
parliamentary constituencies
and 108 council wards, ZPP
recorded 240 human rights
violations. The fact that the
numbers nearly match point
to the importance of the
March 26 by-election and
confirm that the by-elections
were a litmus test for the 2023
harmonised elections. The
political parties did not want
to leave anything to chance
and different from other byelections the country has
witnessed the presidents of
the contesting parties led the
campaigns.
The predominant human
rights violations in July 2018
were intimidation and
harassment and ZPP recorded
134 compared to 115 in March
2022. While some victims of
intimidation and harassment
do not suffer any visible scars
the invisible scars they get
determine the way they will
act on election day including
staying away from the ballot
all together.
While in the run up to the
2018 election, the then biggest
opposition party, MDC
Alliance held its rallies
without the police banning
them.
The situation was to change in
2022 when police banned five
CCC rallies and at one of
those, in Gokwe, they fired
teargas and brutally
descended on party
supporters who had turned up
for the rally. Out of the five
two went ahead in Masvingo
and Epworth when the party
approached the courts. What
was also baffling was the
conditions set out for the CCC
to hold rallies; they were not
allowed to bus in their
supporters while that
condition never applied to
Zanu PF where supporters
were bussed in to all their
rallies.
The bans on rallies marked a
fresh low in Zimbabwean
politics and prove that in
2018, government just
intended to window dress
since it was fresh from a coup.
What this also means is that in
the run up to the 2023
elections, the environment is
likely to be marked by more
State interference into
campaigns of the opposition
parties, especially the CCC,
which has put up a good show
in the March by-elections by
winning 19 out of the 28
contested.
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