Zimbabwe’s general election is still a year away, but democracy advocates say they are worried that last weekend’s by-elections offered a preview of the violence and repression to come.
Despite that, the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party came out of the vote oozing with confidence, saying nothing can stop it from forming the next national government.
It won 19 out of 28 parliamentary seats that were up for grabs, with the ruling ZANU-PF taking nine, mainly rural constituencies.
Photo: AFP
However, the run-up to the by-elections was marred by violence, with one opposition supporter stabbed to death — in the back — during a rally.
Police said that supporters of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF had instigated the violence.
Five suspects have been arrested and charged with murder.
After Mnangagwa seized power in a coup in 2017, he legitimized his presidency the following year in elections that the opposition claims were rigged.
All the while he claimed he would turn a new page from the administration of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
However, for the opposition and civic groups, Saturday’s elections covered too few seats to change the balance of power in the current parliament.
Yet in the run-up to the vote, the opposition faced police intimidation, and Mnangagwa threatened to suspend the work of all non-profit organizations.
“We can do without NGOs [non-governmental organizations]. I will remove them from this country, I will chase them away,” Mnangagwa said before the by-elections. “When they are in the country, they must just do what they declared they want to do in this country.”
Banning non-profits is a tactic Mugabe used in 2008, when he felt most vulnerable at the ballot box. He accused foreign aid agencies of bribing people with food to vote for the opposition.
After he won the election, he lifted the ban on the aid groups.
“We fear that the people are being isolated,” said Jestina Mukoko, director of Zimbabwe Peace Project, a rights group.
“The democratic space is shrinking and if this bill passes it will shrink even more,” said Mukoko, who was abducted in December 2008 by a suspected state agent, tortured and interrogated for days.
If passed, the law would give the government powers to interfere in the activities of civil society organizations, including changes to internal management and funding.
Some fear a ban on aid agencies would lead to drastic cuts in humanitarian assistance, estimated at US$800 million a year.
Foreign aid — which arrives via NGOs — is Zimbabwe’s third-largest revenue stream, after exports and diaspora remittances, the report said, quoting a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe statement.
Political analyst Eldred Masungure said that banning non-profits would be counterproductive.
“It is targeting all democracy and politically focused” groups, Masungure said. “It serves no purpose.”
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