Executive summary
On the 30th of July 2018, Zimbabwe held its historic plebiscite without its old time
leader former President Mugabe who was ousted in a coup in November 2017. There
were incidences of harassment and intimidation coupled with a spike in cases of intra
party violence. Harassment and intimidation was high in rural areas where villagers
were still being forced to submit serial numbers of their BVR slips mostly by traditional
leaders and ZANU-PF supporters. Food aid and agricultural inputs were also used as
tools of coercion by mostly traditional leaders.
There were also concerns over the administration of elections by the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) which was not transparent in the management of the
electoral process. In general, there was limited trust in ZEC due to the exhibited lack
of openness and accountability around its operations. As has been the case in previous
elections, the voter’s roll remained a contentious issue. ZEC failed to avail the voters
roll in time for the sitting of the Nomination Court and also for the general elections.
Voting day was relatively calm and peaceful save for isolated cases bordering on
harassment and intimidation that were documented in areas such as Buhera South,
Marondera, Hurungwe and Chivi among other areas. Cases of assisted voters were
high in rural areas such as Rushinga in Mashonalnad Central.
The post-election period witnessed a spike in human rights violations. This followed
the intervention by the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA)on 1 August 2019 in quelling a
demonstration by citizens and opposition supporters who were protesting the perceived
delay in the announcement of the presidential results. The soldiers indiscriminately
shot and assaulted civilians including those who were not taking part in the
demonstration resulting in the extra- judicial killing of seven (7) people and the injury
of many more.
The 1st of August violence was followed by violence initially in Harare’s high-density
suburbs. The violence spread to rural areas and the target was real and perceived
supporters of the MDC-Alliance and those who had acted as polling agents for the
opposition party. While the main perpetrators of violence in Harare were the ZNA, in
the rural areas it was ZANU PF supporters and traditional leaders. The Forum
documented a total of 274 post-election human rights violations from the 1st to the 30th
of August 2018. Documented post-election human rights violations included assaults;
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