Mandebvhu Talks “Zimbabwe”…

29 March 2008

7 pm.

Polls close throughout the country with few reported incidents.

Reconciliation of ballot papers and counting process takes place with few reported incidents.

10 pm.

Results begin to be sent to MDC Command Center by MDC polling agents.

Throughout the night, after counting is completed, V11 tally forms are posted outside all (+/- 9200) polling station as required by law. MDC heard of few incidents. Some rural counting was stopped until morning because of lack of electricity. This is a consensual agreement of all parties in these polling stations.

29-30-31 March

Counting is completed at all polling stations. The Representatives of all Parties agree and sign off on the results for each Polling Station on a form called a V11, copies of which are posted outside the Polling Station for public viewing as required by law.

(MDC polling agents report the results by SMS and phone to MDC election command center after the count is completed. 85% of polling agents report V11 results by 31 March.)

The V11 forms are then transported by ZEC to the ward level Command Centres where they are summarized into V23 forms. The Results of these Council Elections are announced and a copy posted outside. Ballot boxes remain at the Polling Stations and are only moved to the Constituency Command Centres at a later stage.

These V23 forms then travel with Police/ZEC vehicles to the 210 Constituency Command Centres for tallying of House of Assembly seats. This process is largely completed by ZEC officials by 31 March. Results for each of the 207 House of Assembly seats are announced by Constituency Election Officers and again the results are posted outside for public viewing.

MDC hears of no cases where Constituency Election Officers deviated from this procedure.

These V23 forms travel to the Senatorial Command Centers for compilation of Senate results. Senate election results are tallied and winners announced. This is mostly completed by 31 March.

The V23 forms then traveled to Provincial Command Centres where all the results for each Province are tallied to get Provincial Results. No results are announced at this stage of the process. The V23 forms for each Province are then moved for submission to the National Counting Center in Harare.

1 April

Chief Election Agents (or candidates) for President assemble at the Sheraton Command Center to begin the final verification process which started at 2.30 p.m.

By 3.30 p.m. verification is completed of Presidential results of both Harare and Bulawayo provinces with minor amendments. Chief Election Officers of the MDC and the Independent parties, (ZANU PF was not present), sign off on the figures for these provinces.

Verification process begins for Mashonaland Central. MDC’s chief electoral agent notices some high figures in some constituencies and requests to verify the V11 forms tally with ZEC numbers.

MDC Chief Election Agent is told by ZEC that the V11s are still in the province.

ZEC says, “Once the V11s are assembled we will continue with the process.” ZEC notes to the chief election agents, “there will be some logistical problems” in getting the V11s.

MDC offers to loan ZEC some fuel to assist with these problems in retrieving the V11s from provincial centers. This offer is not accepted.

1-8 April

MDC hears nothing from ZEC at all.

8 April

MDC learns that ZEC Counting Center at the Sheraton has been dismantled.

Chief Election Agent meets ZEC official, where he is having breakfast, who reports that it had to be closed because of ZEC’s financial constraints but that “the verification team is ‘somewhere.’

MDC was not informed that the Counting Command Center was now closed.

MDC eventually hears “from the grapevine” that the verification center has moved to Room 1611 of the Sheraton.

MDC is told, however, that armed people surround the room and that they “wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near”. (MDC never confirmed that police were armed.)

9 April

MDC verification team decides to move out of Sheraton Hotel because of budget constraints.

9-29 April

MDC hears nothing from ZEC except for Pamire who called approximately twice in the week on behalf of Chief Election Officer Sekeramayi to say “they are still working on the V11’s”.

29 April

Chief Election Agents and/or candidates are invited to verification exercise at 2:30 pm on 1 May at the Sheraton Conference Center.

MDC expresses reservations about delay in calling them to the verification center.

Both MDC and Simba Makoni demand to know what they had done with their votes for all these weeks. This was well articulated by Makoni.

MDC Chief Election Agent states, “We need to agree on the methodology of the whole exercise. We should all understand what verification is so we are all clear right from the beginning.”

He states: “All must agree that the counting center is like a polling station and processes that take place in a polling station have to apply to the verification exercise.”

After agreement on methodology, MDC request the national vote total according to ZEC.

ZEC complies.

MDC then asks for the national total broken into each province and then each constituency.

ZEC complies.

But then ZEC asks MDC and the other candidates to provide ZEC with their own vote totals.

MDC rejects this request, telling ZEC that ZEC is the official authority running the election.

MDC notes that its figures are not necessary to provide because it is ZEC’s numbers that must stand in the court of law, not MDCs which were gathered from V11 forms posted on polling stations.

Makoni and ZANU PF provide all their count figures to ZEC.

MDC gives only its own National Total and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Total. ZEC then punches these figures into their computer and they themselves come up with the percentage figure of 50.3%.

ZEC asks MDC for its Provincial and other candidate’s breakdowns. MDC says it is not its business to provide ZEC numbers for its competitors. Chief Election Agents says “I have come to tell you, I am telling you now, MDC won this election.”

MDC sees no need for ZEC to produce every V11 tally sheet for the entire country. It requests ZEC to provide V11s only in places where it believes that turnout spikes indicate MDC may have been cheated.

ZEC continued to tell MDC, “Give us your numbers.”

Finally ZEC says, “We don’t seem to be making any progress.”

ZEC then asks MDC to bring its figures “tomorrow or they will be excluded from the process.”

MDC tells ZEC that its secretariat had not included the number breakdowns in their briefing packs that day and would return with them. Verification then adjourns and arguments postponed until the following morning.

2 May

ZEC again calls upon MDC to present its detailed figures as ZANU and Makoni had done. The fourth candidate had no figures at all so MDC said, “We will help you.”

MDC agrees to provide ZEC the provincial breakdowns.

ZEC then says, “We have a big problem with figures, what’s the way forward?”

MDC requests the V11s to verify the numbers provided by ZEC, especially in Mashonaland West Province.

MDC agents says, “We need to agree on the number of wards and polling stations in that province” in order to ensure it receives the full compilation of V11 forms.

The process of verification then starts soon after 10.00 am.

First V11 form: No problems.

Second V11 form: No problems.

Third V11 form: Problems. Form has no MDC signature. ZEC explains this could be for two reasons, either the polling agent wasn’t there or he refused to sign. MDC says, “Okay. We will investigate but give them the benefit of the doubt.” MDC notes down this anomaly.

Fourth V11 form: No problems.

Fifth V11 Form: Problems. “Form” is actually handwritten piece of paper, not an official form, but the MDC polling agent had signed it. MDC tells ZEC it needs to identify and query the polling agent for this polling station.

Sixth V11 form: No problems.

Seven V11 form: No problems.

After reviewing only seven V11’s, the verification process is then abruptly stopped at 11.20 by the Chief Election Officer Sekeremayi who states, “We can no longer continue this process. If we continue this process it will take four weeks.”

MDC election agent responds, “You have had our votes for four weeks; we are prepared to wait four more weeks. We want a credible and transparent verification process.”

The meeting is adjourned until 2:00 pm.

When Chief Election Agents return it is a markedly hostile environment. Chief Election Officer Sekeremayi simply reads a statement saying he will announce result. He states, “If parties are dissatisfied with the results, they can go to court.” He then proceeds to formally announce the result, despite voluminous protestations, (including protests from Makoni himself).

MDC responds to the announcement telling Sekeramayi it will reject the result because the legally-mandated verification process has not taken place. Accordingly, MDC does not sign the results verification form as required by law, and as mandated at the SADC Extraordinary Summit in Lusaka. SADC rep Kingsley Mamabolo and Salamao are also present when the verification was precipitously stopped. (The SADC Reps indicate that they are only here to observe and therefore cannot do or say anything.)

(Source: via email)

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President Thabo Mbeki flies into Zimbabwe today to hold talks with political leaders amid the deepening political crisis in that country, just as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leadership conceded that the party will not support a presidential run-off election. Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said yesterday: “Mbeki will meet with the country’s political leadership in the context of his Southern African Development Community (SADC)-mandated facilitation process. “In Zimbabwe, he is going to meet the political leadership of that country… all the political leaders in that country,” he said. South African officials are not disclosing the agenda of Mbeki’s meetings today but clearly he will be looking for answers from President Robert Mugabe to the many questions being raised about growing political violence in the country and when he intends to hold the run-off election, amid speculation that it could take months. Mbeki was likely to resist growing pressure to persuade Mugabe to accept UN monitors for the expected run-off, officials said.

Last night MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said that the party would not support a run-off on the basis that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had already won. Speaking after an Institute for Justice and Reconciliation seminar in Cape Town last night, Biti said the MDC would not condone a run-off because it would give the reigning regime an opportunity to terrorise voters into siding with the ruling ZANU PF. “We’ve already won the election, why should we support a run-off?” asked Biti, who was the keynote speaker at a seminar entitled “Zimbabwe: Where to now?” However, Tsvangirai, who is living in Johannesburg, has said he would only announce his decision on the run-off once the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced the election date.

Biti said last night that Mugabe had resorted to a run-off as a last resort because he knew he had lost at the ballot box. “You cannot rule a country if you do not control parliament,” he said, referring to the MDC’s parliamentary victory, in which it scored 99 seats over ZANU PF’s 97. Reluctant to single out any one country, he also slammed the international community for inaction in not stepping into the Zimbabwe election crisis in a significant way. “The international community has a role of midwife to play in the birth of a new Zimbabwe, but they have not done enough to realise what Zimbabweans are fighting for,” Biti said. “It is not at their discretion (to step in); it is their duty… Maybe they will pay attention when rivers of dead people flow through Zimbabwe as in Rwanda.”

Meanwhile, human rights groups, opposition politicians and regional observers have reported an upsurge in political violence in Zimbabwe since the March 29 elections. The MDC says more than 30 of its supporters have died in the violence. Farmers’ groups also said armed youth militias had pushed 40000 workers off farms in a campaign targeting supporters of the opposition. In a further sign of a government crackdown, police yesterday arrested the leaders of the country’s main trade union over speeches they made during a workers’ day rally last week, their lawyer said. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibebe, who are critical of Mugabe, were taken into custody after surrendering to police, who were reportedly looking for them, their lawyer Andrew Makoni, told Reuters. Police have also reportedly arrested Davison Maruziva, the editor of the Standard, a privately owned weekly, as well as prominent human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo.

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The terrible wounds which Robert Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade inflicted on Matabeleland in the early 1980s still show. The countryside is under-populated, there is even less employment in the towns than there is in the rest of Zimbabwe, and people are scared to talk. Not all of them, though. We slipped into Matabeleland with the help of local people, and gathered evidence of some of the massacres carried out there between 1982 and 1986. It began as an attempt by Robert Mugabe, who was then prime minister of Zimbabwe, to deal with about 500 dissidents. These were followers of his rival, Joshua Nkomo, and mostly belonged to Nkomo’s militia, Zipra. Mr Mugabe ordered the Fifth Brigade, which had been trained by the North Korean army and had a number of North Korean officers serving with it, to root them out.

It soon turned into something much worse. The Fifth Brigade, like Mr Mugabe’s government and administration, was mostly Shona-speaking; Matabeleland is populated mostly by Ndebeles, the descendants of Zulus who came to the area in the 1830s. Nowadays, many in Matabeleland describe the campaign of murder as genocide. To find out how many people died, we went to the quiet precincts of the Catholic cathedral in Bulawayo to meet Joseph Buchena Nkatazo. He co-ordinated an investigation carried out some years ago by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. Mr Nkatazo told us that in the areas where they had been able to investigate, they had found evidence of more than 20,000 deaths. He was sure there must have been many more elsewhere.

We drove south of Bulawayo to a place marked on the maps as Antelope - “Balakwe” in Ndebele. In the past, there was a lot of gold mining there. The Fifth Brigade set up a concentration camp in Antelope, where they systematically killed their prisoners. An eyewitness whom we interviewed had been a young girl of 11 when she was taken to the camp. She saw people being shot, beaten and burned to death. “When I remember now, my heart is so painful,” she told me. The bodies of the dead were thrown down the nearby mine shafts. We interviewed a man in late middle-age who had been one of the Fifth Brigade executioners. He confessed to his part in the killings, and said he had also helped dispose of the bodies. “We were taking them [to the mine-shafts] every day in the morning and evening,” he said.

My colleagues and I drove to the Antelope mine. Our aim was to film the human remains at the foot of the mine shaft. It was difficult to get close: a militia group loyal to Robert Mugabe is camped all round the mine. Still, we managed to get there, and our cameraman lowered his camera down the shaft. But the mine was empty. It turned out that the bones had all been cleared away about three years ago, to hide any evidence of the massacre. An old man who lived nearby watched some soldiers dig two mass graves, and throw the bones into them. He led me to the graves: just mounds of earth and stones. One day the remains will be properly exhumed. But not while Robert Mugabe is still in power.

Did he give the orders for the massacres at Antelope and elsewhere? The former Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Henri Karlen, is certain he did. Monsignor Karlen, who is Swiss by origin, confronted Mr Mugabe (who is himself a practising Catholic) and told him the murders must stop. Nowadays Henri Karlen lives in a quiet compound in Bulawayo. “Who brought the North Koreans in to train the soldiers for killing?” he said. “And the soldiers told me Mugabe had sent them to kill. So I believe it.”

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Voting for Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition MDC in the presidential run-off election expected in three weeks’ time, is tantamount to plunging the country into a civil war, a high ranking police officer has warned.

The warning was issued by Senior Assistant Commissioner Mabunda during a meeting with police officers here on Tuesday, stunned police sources told zimbabwejournalists.com. Mabunda is a top lieutenant and confidante to Augustine Chihuri, the police chief who in the past has issued threats that he will not salute Tsvangirai or anyone without proper liberation war credentials. Mabunda is on a countrywide tour - meeting officers of all ranks and warning them of the dangers of voting for Tsvangirai in the expected run-off election.

He vowed during the meeting with the police officers here drawn from all the province’s eight districts that President Robert Mugabe will never be ousted by Tsvangirai.

Should that happen, Mabunda reportedly said a civil war will immediately break out. Most junior officers within the army and the police force are believed to have deserted Mugabe in the ballot box and the warnings by Mabunda are meant to scare them into doing the ruling party’s bidding, especially now as thousands are being left homeless in a brutal campaign in the rural communities that supported the opposition in the March 29 elections.

The meeting was held at the police Main Camp on the edge of the city’s central business district. Officers who attended the meeting said the atmosphere in the meeting was tense. “We were told in no uncertain terms that voting for Tsvangirai is just like voting for war,” said one officer, a constable based at Mutare Central police station. The ruling party got fewer votes than the opposition at polling stations in the March 29 election and some of those booths recording high votes for the MDC are said to have been within police camps.

“Mabunda told us that anyone who will dare continue supporting or sympathizing with the MDC will be in serious problems,” said another officer. The warning by the top police officer coincides with reports of escalating violence targeted at MDC supporters in both the urban and rural areas. The violence is widely blamed on state security agents, war veterans and ZANU PF militants. Thousands of opposition supporters have been displaced while about 200 have been badly assaulted.

Last Saturday the MDC provincial youth leader for Manicaland, Knowledge Nyamhoka, was abducted by yet unknown people at midnight from his Sakubva home and taken to a secluded area where he was badly beaten and left for dead. The MDC says Nyamhoka was abducted by security agents. He was rescued by passersby who found him lying unconscious who took him to a private hospital, the Seventh Avenue Surgical Unit, where he is recuperating.

Two other youth activists from Nyanga were also rushed to the same hospital after meeting the same fate as their leader. The MDC chairman in Manicaland, Patrick Chitaka, said the situation within most opposition strongholds was fast degenerating and urgent measures should be put in place to avert genocide from occurring in Zimbabwe.

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Finally a tyrant is brought into the 21st century, if kicking and screaming. President Robert Mugabe’s rein of terror looks at an end at last as Mr Morgan Tsvangirai challenged the president’s choice to refuse an announcement of election results until there had been a recount. There is now to be a re-run of the presidential poll and good luck to the Movement of Democratic Choice that they make it out of this second one alive.

Mr Nqobizitha Mlilo, spokesman for the MDC, said ‘it is quite obvious we won this election hands down’, as the president refuses to admit he is being ousted after 28 long years of suffering for Zimbabwe. Almost a modern day Hitler it is widely known of his special police hunting white framers and killing any opposition from the people, black or white.

Now the public can see he is scared, and if he doesn’t step down now he will surely be dragged from power and charged with genocide. With the ‘worsening violence’ hopefully coming to an end as the country has the re-run the possibility that a kinder man will be seated at the reins of one of Africa’s most beautiful but troubled contries is uncertain.

Mr Tsvangirai, thankfully, is no dunce. After the trouble with releasing the results became public he quickly took refuge in Zimbabwe’s neighbouring country, the peaceful Botswana. Never has there been two more juxtaposing countries to share a border.

With leaders the world over including UK Prime Minister Brown advising Mugabe to step down only to receive abusive speeches in return it will be a relief globally when he is finally out.

Because the MDC have not won outright if Mugabe will not step down it will mean his party, ZANU PF, attempting to run the country with an opposition-controlled parliament. Yet more instability for a country already on its knees.

The only question now is whether Tsvangirai can win the run off. With Mugabe’s former finance minsiter Simba Makoni behind him as well it must be possible. The MDC must be praying the country does not suffer yet more violence as they make plans to see the run-off though.

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ZNU 119 released. In this programme I look at the problems facing the MDC with the surprise release of the long-awaited Presidential election results, now to be followed by an election second round runoff.

The programme can be heard using the multiplayers in the right hand sidebar of The Bearded Man blog, on Odeo, here or even downloaded or played here.

All of my podcast programmes are available to play or an ‘as required’ basis on my Odeo page.

You may be interested to know that my podcasts have been played an average of 104 times each. I thank you all for the support of my podcast endeavours.

Take care.

‘debvhu

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His Excellency President Robert G. Mugabe

Office of the President

Munhumutapa Building
Samora Machel Avenue/ 3rd Street
Harare, Zimbabwe

17 March 2008.

Your Excellency,

RE: Retirement and Acceptance of the Presidential Election Outcome

I am an exiled Zimbabwean citizen, respectfully writing to express my unreserved revulsion to your deafening silence as both the President of Zimbabwe and the Commander-In-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), over the recent toxic and provocative utterances by your appointed Military, Para-military, and Police Commanders.

Mr President, the era of repressive military adventures in modern Africa is over. Incendiary seditious threats of a coup d’état and to democracy, belong to the past. Your esteemed office has to repudiate the offending Defence Force Officers, who have pre-emptively threatened the imminent will of the people.

May I humbly remind you, Mr President that your muteness on this grave matter is clear acquiescence to the impending violations of international humanitarian law which shall inexorably occur and of which you shall be clearly culpable.

Zimbabwe is eagerly awaiting a peaceful election and subsequent transition.

My umbrage with the intentional misuse of military power and your government’s constant flagrant violations of the supreme law of the land, our constitution, compels me to advise you to plan for a graceful exit from the Zimbabwean political landscape after the elections.

I trust Mr President, and appeal to your good office, conscience, and lucid judgement, that the elections are free and fair. I further request that you proclaim your austere adherence to the African Union (AU), Southern African Development Community (SADC), United Nations (UN), and internationally accepted election standards to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.

Africa and the international community await your dignified exit and long overdue retirement. At 84, Mr President, you are now too old, have failed to understand the youth of the nation, and cling to archaic antiquated ideals. Zimbabwe seeks to reclaim its rightful place amongst the league of progressive nations. Do what is best for Zimbabwe and end your legacy honourably.

Yours Sincerely,

Phil Matibe.

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There are now about 7000 casualties of the rapidly worsening violence in Zimbabwe as the military’s campaign against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party hots up, according to doctors treating the injured. Statistics gathered countrywide in Zimbabwe this week show that only 10 percent of those beaten and tortured are able to get medical treatment. At least 700 people have been treated since the elections. A state-registered nurse, part of a small team gathering information as patients are examined, said yesterday: “We take statements from those who manage to get to see medical personnel. We estimate that we only get to about 10 percent of those who have been attacked, mostly by uniformed soldiers.” The nurse, who would not be named, said that the violence started slowly in the Mashonaland East province, where Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF suffered defeat in the March 29 election, but had spread throughout the country.

Until yesterday, the stated number of victims treated by medical personal remained at about 400, then it was disclosed that the number had almost doubled. “We are particularly worried about people with fractures who are still out there because their injuries will go septic in about a week and there are no drugs in the government hospitals,” the nurse said. He said older victims of the vicious attacks say that the war they are now caught up in is as bad as the bush war of the 1970s, when tens of thousands were caught between Mugabe’s insurgents and the forces of the Rhodesian administration. He said ambulances could no longer travel into certain areas to pick up the injured. Unicef said there were mounting reports of families fleeing the violence, and of aid groups finding it increasingly difficult to operate. “We need to ensure an open and safe space for reaching those in need,” said Dr Festo Kavishe, the UN Children’s fund (Unicef) representative in Zimbabwe.

Many children are being hurt. A 14-month old was admitted to a Harare hospital on Thursday. She had been beaten unconscious on her mother’s back in an attack by ZANU PF youths and men calling themselves “war veterans”. The war against civilians is particularly directed against MDC office bearers and has decimated the party organisation in many rural areas. About 35 houses in a village near Shamva, about 80km north of Harare, were burned and smashed this week, ahead of the country learning that Mugabe had been beaten by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader. Wilfred Mhanda, one of Mugabe’s top commanders in the 1970s bush war, whose nom de guerre was Dzinashe Machingura, said this week that an “orgy of violence” had been perpetrated by state security forces, “complemented by war veterans, youth militia and ZANU PF enthusiasts.

“The Mugabe regime descended on the defenceless people of Zimbabwe as retribution for voting for change. Command structures for the campaign of violence are now fully operational. Mugabe’s illegitimate and repressive rule has degenerated into a fascist dictatorship reminiscent of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge reign of terror in Cambodia. It is a crime against humanity… and an abomination for former liberation fighters to indulge in retributive atrocities and human rights abuses against the people they fought to liberate.” The MDC is meeting in South Africa this weekend to discuss whether it should take part in the run-off election scheduled for May 19. The official results of the presidential election gave Tsvangirai 47,9 percent of the vote and Mugabe 43,2 percent. If Tsvangirai does not contest the rerun, Mugabe will be sworn in for a further five years in power.

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Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has won the first round of a presidential election against Robert Mugabe with 47.9% of the vote, an election official said on Friday.

Mugabe won 43.2% of the vote and, since neither candidate won more than 50%, a second round run-off will have to be held, Lovemore Sekeramayi, chief elections officer, told reporters in Harare.

“Since no candidate has received the majority of the valid vote cast… a second election shall be held on a date to be advised by the commission,” he said, referring to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Under Zimbabwe election law, the run-off has to be held within 21 days after the announcement of the result.

Former finance minister Simba Makoni, widely expected to back Tsvangirai in any run-off, came third in the vote with 8.3%, Sekeramayi said.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has claimed an outright victory over Mugabe in the March 29 election based on its own calculations and said ahead of the announcement that it would reject a result that showed otherwise.

Speaking before the announcement, Chris Mbanga, Tsvangirai’s representative at all-party talks hosted by the electoral commission in Harare, said the commission was not listening to the opposition.

“We have been denied the opportunity to verify the result and they’re going ahead to announce the original results and now we are taking the matter to our political leadership,” Mbanga said before leaving the meeting.

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The MDC-T campaign to demonise the Government for alleged violence and human rights abuses came unstuck on Tuesday when the United Nations Secretariat also publicly fingered the opposition for violence against ZANU PF supporters.

This came minutes before the world body snubbed attempts by the MDC-T’s Western handlers to have Zimbabwe on the agenda of the Security Council as a prelude to intervention, saying it was only “the UK and the US who have been the most vocal on the issue” while Africa was for quiet diplomacy.

In his briefing to the Security Council meeting on Wednesday, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Mr B. Lynn Pascoe said though the MDC-T claimed ZANU PF had launched a campaign of violence against its supporters, reports indicated that MDC-T supporters were also resorting to violence and intimidation.

“There are reports that ZANU PF has incited a campaign of abuses against MDC officials and supporters… Reports also suggested ‘an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly, but not exclusively, on rural supporters of the opposition MDC party’, some reports also indicated some MDC supporters were resorting to violence and intimidation.”

He noted that though the MDC-T leadership claimed that 10 of its supporters had died as a result of politically-motivated violence, the police and ZANU PF had denied the assertions.

“The MDC says at least 10 of its supporters have been killed. However, the police and ZANU PF deny any deaths due to political violence,” Mr Pascoe said.

Mr Pascoe’s observations are vindicated by a document prepared by the MDC-T leadership chronicling alleged cases of politically-motivated violence from March 29 that does not report any deaths contrary to the claims made by the party leadership in the South African and Western media.

Police say they have handled over 75 cases of politically-motivated violence perpetrated by MDC-T supporters while the opposition alleges that ZANU PF supporters were involved in 27 instances of violence against their supporters.

Official records from the CID Law and Order Section show that the department has dealt with 33 cases of violence, most of which stemmed from the abortive stayaway called by the MDC-T.

So far, 10 opposition supporters have appeared in court with two of the cases already finalised, 11 others have paid admission of guilt fines while 13 are still under investigation. A further 53 accused persons have paid fines for various offences of politically-motivated violence.

A letter from MDC-T MP-elect for the St Mary’s constituency that we reproduce in full on the letters page also situates violence within opposition circles.

Sources at the UN Secretariat said the world body had counselled caution over claims by the MDC-T leadership, saying many of the claims made since the elections had been found to be false or were not substantiated by facts.

They cited the statement made by MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti on April 2, claiming his party had won 80 percent of the House of Assembly seats which would have translated into 168 of the 210 seats when it had managed only 99 seats; and the claim that Morgan Tsvangirai had garnered 50,3 percent of the vote yet the figures the party quoted gave him 49,1 percent of the votes.

Last week, two suspected MDC-T supporters appeared in court, facing charges of arson after the opposition allegedly unleashed an organised campaign of violence at Mayo Resettlement Area in Headlands where they torched more than eight homesteads belonging to ZANU PF supporters.

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