Mwenezi villagers have accused Mwenezi East Councilor for ward 13; Takura Mudavose of forcing all potential voters in the ward to register through the Zanu PF crafted system during the official opening of Mukume Secondary School in Mwenezi last week.
Speaking at a dialogue meeting facilitated by Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) at Chenhara in Mwenezi last week, the concerned villagers said the Zanu PF Councilor and ruling party officials threatened to eliminate members of opposition parties ahead of the 2018 elections.
The villagers said Councilor Mudavose instructed all potential voters to submit their names to local traditional leaders to enable them to acquire proof of residence letters. Traditional leaders were urged to issue proof of residence documents to gold panners in the Lundi River to make sure that they would register to vote in Mwenezi district.
“We are concerned about the cases of intimidation by Zanu PF officials here in Mwenezi district. The Zanu PF officials promised to employ crude tactics to win the forthcoming elections,” said one youth. It was also revealed during the COTRAD dialogue meeting that, Zanu PF officials instructed village heads to collect serial numbers of registration slips from villagers who would have registered to vote.
COTRAD peace committee members in Mwenezi district are deeply worried about intimidation and threats of political violence soon after the commencement of the Biometric Mobile Voter Registration on 10 October 2017. COTRAD therefore calls on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to enforce the electoral code of conduct to combat politically motivated violence.