Continued violence ahead of by-election

Campaigning ahead of a by-election later this month in Bikita West in Zimbabwe’s southern Masvingo province has been marred by continued violence, Rindai Chipfunde of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) told IRIN on Tuesday.

“At least 20 people have been badly injured since mid-December following a government decision to send its supporters and war vets to the area,” she said. The constituency had always been considered a traditional ruling ZANU-PF stronghold, but last June, voted in opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Amos Mutongi. Mutongi died of a heart ailment in September and fresh elections are set for 14 and 15 January. ZANU-PF’s candidate is retired army colonel Claudius Makova, who lost to Mutongi in the June poll.
The MDC are reported to have sent a contingent of their own supporters to Bikita West to protect voters in the run-up to the election. According to Chipfunde, monitors from her NGO report that the local police are doing little to curtail the violence and have yet to make any arrests.

On Saturday the violence claimed its first life when a former MDC supporter who defected to the ruling party was stabbed to death at a ZANU-PF rally at Baradzanwa. The independent ‘Daily News’ reported on Tuesday that besides the killing, two MDC MPs were injured over the weekend and property worth thousands of US dollars was destroyed in clashes around the rural constituency. In addition, four MDC vehicles were reportedly burnt.

The newspaper said the trouble appeared to be fuelled by the government’s amnesty granted to those who committed acts of violence during the June legislative election. ZESN monitors in Bikita West reported seeing war veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hunzi rallying ZANU-PF supporters in the area over the weekend. They also said that their voter education work in the constituency has had to be curtailed because of ongoing clashes.