Interviews by Human Rights Watch with more than 60 victims and eyewitnesses indicate that the violence has been concentrated in areas traditionally viewed by ZANU-PF as “strongholds,” in the provinces of Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East, as well as the provinces of Manicaland, Masvingo and the capital Harare. Human Rights Watch has also documented other incidents of violence in Midlands, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces. Reasons for the Violence For the very first time in its history, ZANU-PF either suffered heavy losses or won by much narrower margins than it expected in its “strongholds” in the parliamentary elections. For example, in Mashonaland Central, one of the areas of rampant ZANUPF violence, ZANU-PF actually won 16 of the 18 contested House of Assembly seats.19 In Mashonaland East, another area that has seen high levels of ZANU-PF violence (almost 50 percent of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch), ZANU-PF won 19 of the 23 contested House of Assembly seats.20 However, closer scrutiny of the polling station results indicate that the MDC made significant inroads in each of these provinces, losing by much narrower margins than ZANU-PF had anticipated. In other violence-affected provinces such as Masvingo and Manicaland, ZANU-PF lost constituencies that it had previously held to the MDC. The violence appears to be intended to punish Zimbabweans who voted for the MDC on March 29, in particular those who voted in the “strongholds.” It is being used to deter people from voting for the MDC and to persuade them to vote for ZANU-PF during the presidential runoff. Finally, it is being used to change the political landscape of rural areas by effectively displacing and thereby disenfranchising the voting rights of known MDC members and supporters. The scope and scale of the post-election violence far exceeds that seen during past election years of 2000, 2002 and 2005. Local human rights organizations have reported thousands of incidents of violence throughout the country since April. For 19 Kubatana , “Results - 'Harmonised' elections 29 March 2008: House of Assembly and Senate,” http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/elec/080329kubres.asp?spec_code=080121elecdex&sector=ELEC, May 15, 2008, (accessed May 27, 2008) 20 Ibid. 15 Human Rights Watch 2008