from Partnership Africa Canada, who communicated extensively with Chindori-Chininga, the ZANU PF MP knew he was a “marked man” and that his work as chairman of the parliamentary committee on mines and energy had ended his political career in the party. May The month under review witnessed a renewed assault on civil society organizations; sustained intra party divisions especially within the MDC-T and Zanu PF. Midlands and Manicaland provinces recorded the highest number of violations during the month under review. Of the 511 violations recorded in May, Manicaland and Midlands shared 263 violations. This figure constitutes more than half the violations recorded during the period under review. However, the three Matabeleland provinces (Mat north, Mat South and Bulawayo) recorded the least violations. These three provinces recorded just 28 violations. The main sources of conflict during the period under review mainly revolved around the mobile voter registration exercise, intra party conflict as primary elections loomed in Zanu PF and MDC-T, forced meetings by Zanu PF members and traditional leaders, military involvement in political and civic affairs and continued raids and harassment of civic society organisations and activists by the police. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) embarked on a mobile voter registration exercise towards the end of April until mid May. The process was marred with controversy as it was not sufficiently publicised. This false start by the Registrar of Voters did not go down well with many including civil society leaders who demanded that ZEC must redo the voter registration process. Even ZEC’s chairperson Justice Rita Makarau admitted that the process was undermined by a host of inadequacies. At a meeting with civil society, Justice Makarau announced that the new constitution would provide for a 30 day voter registration and voters’ roll inspection. She confirmed that the process would restart on June 10. During the registration process, some traditional leaders from Zaka East constituency ward 20, reportedly extorted money from poor villagers between 17 and 19 May. This involved demanding a dollar each from every family disguised as ‘voter inspection fees”. In Chegutu, some youths were arrested at Ameva Farm by police accused of unlawfully mobilizing people to go and register to vote. Election Resource Centre (ERC) Director Tawanda Chimhini was also arrested for breaching “voter education rules’ during the period under review. As the parliamentary term was coming to a close, incumbent MPs, Senators and Councillors from across the political divide began to cling to power. The bid by most outgoing politicians to be retained caused rifts within the political parties as chaos reigned. In Manicaland for example, the MDC-T had to postpone primary elections by a week as politicians turned on the heat against each other. Three senior politicians Prosper Mutseyami, Pishai Muchauraya, Lloyd Mahute were arrested on allegations of public violence. In Gweru, MDC-T was reported to be divided into the Madzibaba and Jatrofa factions. Although Zanu PF had neither released any dates for their primary elections nor the rules governing the process, the internal strife in the party escalated withZanu PF party stalwarts such as Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa confronting fellow party members like Mike Madiro (suspended chairperson in Manicaland). The month of May also saw Zanu PF vigorously continuing with its door to door campaign across the country. This exercise raised political tensions since the majority of the campaigners were using coercion to approach members of the public. They breached privacy and trespass laws by unlawfully entering people’s homes and used intimidation tactics to gain votes which was evident in. in Mashonaland West (Mutorashanga- Kashwao farm).This is where Zanu PF activists under the leadership of the local ward councillor devised a strategy called “Batai Munhu” operation loosely translated to “catch the culprit” ’ whereby people were given Zanu PF data forms to fill, then asked to register to vote and then declare in public that they would vote for Zanu PF in the upcoming elections. Furthermore, in Mashonaland East, Manicaland and Mashonaland Central, reports suggested that Zanu PF urged traditional leaders to hold at least two Zanu PF meetings a week. Members of the security forces, mostly soldiers were reportedly being deployed in Mutoko, Maramba 22