It is hard to comprehend how abnormal the situation in Zimbabwe has been between the March and June elections. Zimbabwe has had no parliament although all the MPs have been elected. The new parliamentarians have not met to elect a Speaker. Several MDC MPs have been arrested on charges ranging from child abduction to organising violence; many others are in hiding13. This is further described by Craig Timberg: In three months between the 29th March vote and the June 27 runoff election, ruling-party militias under the guidance of 200 senior army officers battered the Movement for Democratic Change, bringing the opposition party’s network of activists to the verge of oblivion. By election day, more than 80 opposition supporters were dead, hundreds were missing, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands were homeless. Morgan Tsvangirai, the party’s leader, dropped out of the contest and took refuge in the Dutch Embassy14. ZANU PF did this as a result of its first experience of defeat and the narrow victory even in its stronghold areas such as Mashonaland central. The inroads of MDC-T into ZANU PF strongholds needed to be curbed and violence was the only way. A review of the violence that took place in 2008 pointed to organised violence and torture.15 Eyewitnesses implicated by name local headsmen, ZANUPF councilors, MPs and supporters who worked closely with senior ranking army officers, police and prison officers, and agents from the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). In fact, government institutions, particularly the security services under the auspices of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), saw increased presence of the Zimbabwe National Army and other security wings of government deployed in rural areas and worked with “war veterans” who they armed with shortguns and rifles and the rural Zimbabwe became the “coming of anarchy” with no-go areas for opposition created in Mashonaland East, West and Central. The police followed by arresting, beating and torturing members of the opposition and the MDC-T supporters were not spared. ZANU PF pursued an . 13 Rnager T. (2008), Will normality return to Zimbabwe?’ The East African (Kenya) 7 July 2008. 
 14 Timberg, C. (2008), The Washington Post, 5 July 2008. 
 15 See again CSVR (2009), Subliminal Terror? Human rights violations and torture in Zimbabwe during 2008.. June 2009. Johannesburg: Center for Study of Violence and Reconciliation. 5