About six Hurungwe traditional chiefs from Mashonaland West allegedly petitioned President Robert Mugabe asking him to sack Hurungwe East legislator Sarah Mahoka on allegations of disregarding traditional customs and stealing presidential inputs. Mahoka a survivor of intra-party political violence was assaulted by a group of youths allegedly led by Themba Mliswa in February 2013. A group of former liberation war fighters led by Retired Army Captain David Juro compiled a document which alleged internal strife, candidate imposition and meddling by the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) in Zanu PF Midlands Provincial politics ahead of the elections. The month under review was also marred with reports of defections and counter defections as the political parties moved to showcase their alleged and perceived growing support bases ahead of the polls. The defections were mainly reported from the southern provinces of the country with reported defections within the two MDC formations. The Independence Day celebrations involved a series of violations across the country as villagers were forced to contribute towards the celebrations. However, the 2013 celebrations were however held in a relatively peaceful manner with political party supporters from across the political spectrum attending. Villagers from Mashonaland East were ordered to donate US$2 or 5kg of maize meal towards the celebrations. War veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda allegedly threatened political violence while addressing a public lecture at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) on April 9. Sibanda likened MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to the devil accusing him of sabotaging the country. The police from Masvingo on Wednesday 24 April prohibited the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions from staging a procession on Wednesday 1 May in commemoration of Workers Day. The ZCTU had written to the police notifying them of their intention to hold a procession from Craft Centre to Mucheke Stadium, where the labour union would commemorate the Workers Day festivities in Masvingo Province. But the police turned down the ZCTU procession and ordered them to confine themselves to just gathering at Mucheke Stadium adding that the Zimbabwe Republic Police could not sanction the procession “due to security reasons”. During the month under review the country witnessed very few incidents (27) of food and other forms aid violations which were only concentrated in the Midlands Province. This could be attributed to the fact that this is the period when farmers normally harvest their crops and do not require any additional sources of aid. March The constitutional referendum held on March 16, was a step towards the holding of the impending elections but the event also provided the government with an opportunity to test its electoral systems. The referendum enabled political parties to hold rallies in support of the document leading to people’s rights being violated. The number of politically motivated incidents of violence declined significantly during the month mainly because the country’s major political parties were all in support of the draft constitution. There were 382 incidents recorded in March down from the 421 cases witnessed in February. While the major political parties were able to freely urge their supporters to vote yes in the referendum, it was not the case for other actors such as the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and its allies who were campaigning for a no vote. The NCA had one of its meetings blocked by the police in Chipinge on the pretext that they had not sought police clearance. Furthermore, the referendum exercise proved to be a source of conflict during the period under review as citizens were forced to attend rallies in support of the constitutional draft. Several reports of traditional leaders gathering their subjects and ordering them to vote yes were received from Manicaland and Masvingo provinces. The police continued to target human rights NGOs with the arrest and detention of Zenzele Ndebele, the Editor of Radio Dialogue on allegations of smuggling solar-powered and wind- up radio sets into 24