Opposition parties protest in Harare

Peta Thornycroft IT WAS A busy political day in Harare yesterday as heavily armed policemen created a barrage of equipment and men to prevent demonstrators storming into the city in protest against the Zimbabwe Election Commission.

The demonstration attracted thousands who saw nearly all Zimbabwe’s main opposition leaders standing together against the commission ahead of next year’s polls.

Opposition parties united under the banner of the National Election Reform Agenda, Nera, were protesting against the government’s decision to take over kits for the first ever biometric voter registration from the UN.

They say they fear government ownership of the kits will make it easier for President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party to pack its supporters on to the voters roll.

Police allowed the Nera protesters to march on a field on the western edge of the city but refused permission for the demonstrators to enter the city centre to hand over a written protest at the election commission’s headquarters.

Nera represents about 18 political parties, but former vice-president Joice Mujuru, leader of one of the newer parties, did not show up as her Zimbabwe People First, ZPF, split last month.

But one of her former allies, former security minister Didymus Mutasa, who was, like her, expelled from ZanuPF two years ago, was at the demonstration.

He said he and others should endorse Morgan Tsvangirai, the president of the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as the candidate to stand against Mugabe in the presidential elections next year.

Tsvangirai, looking fit after his recent bout with cancer which was treated with chemotherapy in South Africa last year, called on all opposition parties and groups to get together.

“We need to unite on the subject of electoral reform. And if we take over government next year, we have to govern differently and not follow Mugabe’s way.

“We have to remove the Zanu-PF governance culture,” he said to warm applause from about 2 000 people who had waited for hours for him and others to arrive.

He said they could not accept the government updating the voters roll using biometric kits managed by the current election staff.

Scores of riot policemen in trucks, backed up by two water cannons, blocked the entrance to the city centre after Tsvangirai and other political leaders finished their speeches.

But thousands of anti-government young people and businessmen and women sang songs of protest as the police trucks rumbled through the pot-holed, crowded streets jam-packed with vendors.

Some smiled as they sang from within their buildings, outside shops and from their vehicles about a “new” Zimbabwe.

Opposition parties have been holding talks with the ZEC over the format of the 2018 elections.

But negotiations ended badly on Tuesday, when ZEC chairwoman Judge Rita Makarau walked out accusing the opposition of targeting her “unfairly”.