Civic body demands election violence investigation

Meanwhile, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) has demanded that a commission of inquiry be established to investigate violence in the run-up to parliamentary elections last month, news reports said.

At a news conference on Tuesday, the spokesman of the civic body, Brian Kagoro, also condemned the “partisan enforcement of law and order by the police force.”

At least 33 people, mostly opposition supporters, were killed and hundreds more beaten, tortured, raped or injured in the four months leading up to the June 24-25 elections, which the ruling ZANU-PF party won by a narrow margin.

Kagoro also criticised neighbouring countries for their failure to react to the violence. After the ruling African National Congress of South Africa congratulated ZANU-PF on its victory, Kagoro was quoted as saying: “We don’t believe that South Africa is an international example of how to hold non-violent elections.”