general election and were already making preparations to deploy for the inspection of the voters’ roll exercise. 4.7. Political violence and intimidation 4.7.1. The Officer Commanding Harare Province advised that cases of political violence had been received in Southlea Park though he did not have finer details. The ZHRC team paid a courtesy call to the ZRP Southlea Park Officer in Charge to follow up on the matter but however, it was highlighted that they had not received any cases of violence in relation to the MDC primaries. He further stated that since primary elections were an in house issue the chances of incidences of violence being reported were minimal unless the violence was aggravated and had dire consequences. 4.8. Freedom of thought and expression 4.8.1. In Guruve and Rushinga the ZRP stated that the environment was peaceful and no issues of violence had been reported. The ZRP in Guruve indicated that political clashes were very possible during the time of elections but none had been reported to date. He advised the ZHRC team to be selective in their speech and be careful when they are in the field because of the political connotations in the area. He indicated that the community strongly supports one political party, ZANU PF, hence there was no acceptance of other political parties or independent newspapers. This goes against the spirit of the Constitution which provides for freedom of thought and opinion in section 60 (1) (a) as well as the freedom to seek, receive and communicate ideas and other information as enshrined under section 61 (1) (a). Furthermore he informed the ZHRC that he had attended the meeting in Bindura on the 17th of May 2018, between political parties and the ZRP in the province where political parties were being encouraged to be peaceful to ensure free and fair, violence free elections. This is in compliance with section 10 of the Constitution which stipulates that the State, and every person, including juristic persons, and every institution and agency of government at every level, must promote national unity, peace and stability. Page 10 of 16