NATIONAL Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango) chairman Effie Ncube yesterday forecast that the forthcoming elections will be very peaceful as Zanu PF learnt a lesson in 2008 that violence worked against it.
Richard Muponde
Speaking on the side lines of a three-day regional conference on strengthening mechanisms for violence prevention and peace building in Zimbabwe in Victoria Falls, Ncube said Zanu PF was now cognisant that a violent election leads to illegitimacy of the process and will not be accepted by Sadc, African Union and the international community.
“Zanu PF has learnt a lesson,” he said. “The legitimacy of an election is determined by how peaceful the election is.
“If there is any intention to rig the coming elections, Zanu PF will rig peacefully because they do not want violence working against them.”
Ncube, however, said the last two weeks towards elections were important, as violence could erupt after political parties realise that their support base could be dwindling.
“Having said that, the structures of violence are still in place,” he said. “They could unleash violence to coerce people to vote for their party.”
Zanu PF has often been accused of unleashing violence ahead of elections, with the party accused of engineering a bloodbath as it prepared for the 2008 presidential runoff.
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Ncube made the remarks amid claims by Chief Shana of Jambezi area that parties imported and exported violence to provinces by bussing in unknown people to cause mayhem.
Contributing to a presentation by Shastry Njeru of the Non-Governmental Organisations Forum, Chief Shana said political parties sponsored violence by importing and exporting people across provinces to cause mayhem.
“Political leaders heighten tensions and cause violence,” he said. They do not respect chiefs when the time of electioneering comes. They have their own programmes, which are violent.”
