Added to this, Heal Zimbabwe as part of its target advocacy initiative, engaged all the recorded perpetrators imploring them to desist from denying community members their democratic rights of free participation in electoral processes. The organisation also engaged all the implicated Village heads in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East and Masvingo. Generally, the Village heads highlighted that most of the directives came from the local ZANU PF leadership within their areas. Heal Zimbabwe implored the Village heads to uphold their constitutional duty of not violating fundamental human rights and freedoms of any person as enshrined in Section 281 of the constitution. In light of this, Heal Zimbabwe wrote to the Ministry of Local Government to raise concern over the misconduct of some Traditional leaders who are meddling in partisan politics. This is a violation of Section 282 of the Constitution. It must be noted that Heal Zimbabwe officially reported the human right violations cases to the police. The Police responded by highlighting that they have launched investigations into the cases. It is quite unfortunate that Heal Zimbabwe did not record any report of arrest of perpetrators of human rights violations during the BVR process. This was despite numerous reports made to the police both at local and national level. HZT is equally concerned with the welfare and security of victims who have lost faith and confidence in the Police. The organisation further calls for institutional reforms within the Police so as to restore confidence within the citizens who feel let down by the police. 3.1 Way forward In light of the above Heal Zimbabwe proposes the following; a) ZEC must raise awareness on any electoral process prior so that citizens are better informed. b) Civil society organisations and the church in partnership with the ZEC, NPRC and the ZHRC must conduct outreach programmes in local communities to demystify these human rights violations linked to voter registration slips and highlight on the criminality of the practise. c) The police must swiftly investigate and arrest all perpetrators of the BVR human rights violations. 7

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