Cops battle to restrain protesters in Harare

Heavily armed policemen created a barrage of equipment and officers to prevent demonstrators storming into the Harare CBD yesterday in protest against the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC).

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

Opposition parties who 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 are afraid that government ownership of the kits would make it easier for President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party to pack its supporters onto the voters roll.

Police allowed the Nera protest march on a field on the western edge of Harare but refused permission for the demonstrators to enter the CBD to hand over a written protest at the 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. Her Zimbabwe People First party split last month.

But one of her former allies, former security minister Didymus Mutasa, who was, like her, expelled from Zanu-PF two years ago, attended the protest march.

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

Tsvangirai, looking fit after his 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 several hours for him and other leaders 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 police in large trucks, backed by two water cannons, blocked the entrance to the city centre after Tsvangirai and other political leaders had concluded their speeches.

Thousands of anti-government youths and business people sang protest songs as the police trucks rumbled through the pothole-riddled and crowded streets, which were jam-packed with vendors.

They sang from within their buildings, outside the front of the small colourful shops, while some sang from their vehicles.

Others, mostly young men, smiling broadly, sang about a “new” Zimbabwe as they walked along the street.

Opposition parties have been holding talks with the ZEC over the format of the 2018 elections. But negotiations ended badly on Tuesday, when ZEC chairperson Judge Rita Makarau walked out after accusing the opposition of targeting her “unfairly”.

Nera wants the UN Development Programme to oversee the purchase of equipment to register voters with biometric kits. – Foreign Service

Opposition parties call for ‘new’ Zimbabwe