Zim pre-poll violence up

Politically motivated violence has reportedly flared up in Zimbabwe in recent months, as the southern African nation gears up for presidential polls in 2018, a report says.According to Bloomberg, a rights group, The Zimbabwe Peace Projects, claimed that at least 745 people were attacked in August alone, up from 435 in July.The group alleged that about 94% of the attacks were carried out by the ruling Zanu-PF party and the country's security forces.“The nature of the human-rights violations, mainly politically motivated violence, makes disturbing reading,” the head of the group, Jestina Mukoko was quoted saying.She added that the attacks pointed “to a festering culture of political intolerance that potentially spells trouble for the 2018 elections”.This came a few days after a study by Research Advocacy Unit (RAU) said that Zimbabwe was the worst violent post-independence country in Africa, according to New Zimbabwe.com.The study said that this was not at all shocking as the southern African country's post-independence elections had been marred by violence since 1980, with the 1985 polls being arguably the worst.The report titled 'Zimbabwe since the elections in July 2013: The view from 2017' noted a pattern of violence and intimidation under President Robert Mugabe's rule.“Of the elections held since 2000, some have been very violent, 2000, 2002, and 2008 whilst the others 2005 and 2013 have been marked by more intimidation rather than having high levels of overt violence,” the RAU study was cited as saying.The study indicated that the upcoming 2018 polls could be the most violent in the country's recent history due to Zanu-PF factional fights.In the meanwhile, Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has urged the registrar-general's office to consider issuing free identity documents (IDs) to poor Zimbabweans ahead of the 2018 general elections, says a report.According to New Zimbabwe, the Morgan Tsvangirai led party said that it was only fair that poor Zimbabweans be issued with the new identity cards for free, as many of them were not able to pay the US$10 (N$ 130) required to acquire them.MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said that his party was not going to accept anything less than free IDs for the poor.“No eligible Zimbabwean citizen should be denied a national ID simply because he/she is too poor to pay for the acquisition of such an important document. Similarly, no eligible Zimbabwean citizen should be denied his/her constitutional right to register as a voter simply because they couldn't acquire the relevant national ID,” Gutu was quoted as saying.Native applicants were required to pay US$10 while aliens are expected to fork out US$50 (N$ 647) to obtain the IDs. Fresh voter registration Gutu's sentiments came less than two weeks after the MDC called on the country's registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede to ensure that the three months national mobile registration exercise for national identity cards, birth and death certificates in preparation for voter registration was carried out fairly across the country. The new national Identity Documents registration was expected to run from 4 September to 30 November.But, according to the report, Mudede's announcement contradicted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) proclamation early this year. The electoral body announced that it was going to roll out a fresh voter registration exercise, removing Mudede from administering the election process.In light of the announcement, Gutu said it was important that the exercise reached even the most rural places in the country to ensure that all Zimbabweans eligible to register to vote were able to do so.“On numerous occasions, Zimbabweans, particularly those who live in urban areas, have complained about the long delays in queues for voter registration, which state of affairs has unfortunately contributed to voter apathy in these areas. The planned national mobile registration exercise should, thus, be designed in such a manner that no eligible person would fail to obtain the new machine – readable national ID,” said Gutu at the time.NEWS24

Zim pre-poll violence up

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-26

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Zim pre-poll violence up

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-26

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