Case 13 It was around midnight a week or so before the 2018 Harmonized Elections. When I was passing the Rural District Council offices in Ward 13 Mushayavanhu in Mvuma, I saw a group of people advancing towards me shouting ―why are you removing the posters of President Mnangagwa... today, we want to teach you a lessonǁ. I quickly recognized the ZANU PF House of Assembly candidate Mr. Machando who was in the company of Mr. Msindo and Mr. Mahida. Mr. Machando started to pelt stones on me, hitting me hard in my ribs with a big stone. "Musatanyoko" - a very bad Shona scolding word rebuking mothers' ass - he said as I fell and struggled to stand on my feet. Mr. Machando rushed to the police. He made a report that I was tearing off Mr. Mnangagwa's posters. I was locked in Mvuma cells for the rest of the night. I was in deep pain. The following day, I was taken to Mvuma Magistrate Court. During the initial appearance, the magistrate said Mr. Mnangagwa, rather than Mr. Machando, was supposed to be the plaintiff. I was asked to go to hospital for a medical report. I did not because I failed to raise the transport and hospital fees. Mr. Machando had earlier on warned me that I will regret being an MDC supporter. It was therefore a lesson to many others from Mvuma who had to make a choice to be either politically independent and be beaten up (or even killed) or voting for ZANU PF against their choices. Case 14 In the Diocese of Gokwe, fear was used by traditional leaders - Chiefs and village heads - to coerce voters. They threatened to chase away all the political opponents from ―theirǁ land. Reports were made of Chief Chireya (Gokwe North) and Chief Njelele (Gokwe South). Some humanitarian programs had a thin line of separation on whether they were government programs or political party programs or individual campaigning programs. For example road maintenance was being used for campaigning in Gokwe North by the ZANU PF candidate. Even farming inputs were announced as a government program but on the ground in Sengwa (Gokwe South) the ZANU PF candidate claimed that he was the owner of these farming inputs. A few days before elections the headmaster for Zanda Primary School was threatened by the Zanu PF candidate of Gokwe Central Constituency (Mr. V. Matemadanda) who produced a gun and told the head to vacate the school. The headmaster left the school and did not return to his family even soon after elections. 4.1.4 Considerate Distribution of Political Party Regalia In an extreme scenario, the scramble for scarce political regalia - such as T-shirts, rappers and hats in the run up to 2018 Harmonized Elections led to loss of lives. In June 2018, a three month old baby was squeezed to death at Mucheke Stadium B Arena when the mother was stampeding for a 21 political party t-shirt. The mother of the baby - perhaps due to failure to withstand the experience committed suicide in July 2018. More than 90% of CCJPZ Diocesan long term observation reports showed that political party regalia increased tensions, intra-party conflicts and divisions in communities. Those who got it considered themselves as more special than those who could not. For some of the youth in general, ― favouritism in the distribution of political party regalia reduced their commitment to participation as stated by one youth leader: “We as young people do not attend political rallies because when there is something from the [political] party, the youth are not given. Even the political party regalia that is being distributed is only being given to the old and elderly members of the [political] party. It is usually the old and elderly members of the party who will be given political party regalia” Much could have been done by political parties by having inclusive rules or code of conduct for distributing regalia rather than just ― throwing it into the crowdǁ. But why do men and women ― fight for regalia which are usually made from relatively cheap material they can easily buy for themselves? One traditional leader observed that ―this is the only opportunity that prospective voters have to benefit from the political candidate. Once they are elected into office, ―they will go 21 Also see https://www.zimeye.net/2018/06/15/baby-dies-in-regalia-stampede-at-ed-rally/ accessed on 28 September 2018 13