As can be seen from Table 1 [above], the run up to the elections occurred against the background of
the worst year since the Human Rights Forum began reporting on political violence, with every
indication that 2008 will be even worse than 2007, and certainly the monthly average is more than
double the worst previous year, which was 2007.
In its May 2008 report, the Human Rights Forum also drew particular attention to the finding from its
own data that human rights violations increase appreciably during elections. 2 As can be seen from
Table 2 [below], eight of the fourteen violation types, recorded by the Human Rights Forum, increase
significantly during elections. This analysis included the data from the March 2008 poll.
Table 2
Months with elections compared to months without elections: July 2001 to April 2008
[Source: Human Rights Forum.]3
Non-Election Month
N=51
116
5998
1653
9
47
1
796
6383
39
1686
768
9
4
1606
19115
Election Month
N=31
433**
2911
2025*
19*
126**
31*
694
2963
88*
3151*
901
12
53
2827*
16234
Abductions
arrest & detention
Assault
attempted murder
death threats
disappearance
displacement
Freedoms
Murder
Political discrimination
property violation
Rape
school closure
Torture
Totals:
* all significant at p=0.05; **all significant at p=0.01 or greater.
Thus, there was serious apprehension by the Human Rights Forum about the possibility of political
violence in the March election, which has been vindicated, not only by some violence during the preelection period, but, more seriously, in the interregnum between the March poll and second round
Run-off between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. There have already been a number of
reports indicating the seriousness of the current violence and its implications for a free and fair Runoff on 27 June 2008.4 All these reports have concluded that there have been, and continues to be,
serious abuses of human rights, and that the Zimbabwe government, by commission or omission, is
responsible for these violations. The violations are so serious that they even resulted in a special
mission being sent to Zimbabwe by the SADC mediator, President Thabo Mbeki, and have drawn
2
3
4
See Human Rights Forum (2008), Can the elections in Zimbabwe be Free and Fair? Paper produced by the Research and
Advocacy Unit [RAU] for the Human Rights Forum, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM.
See again Human Rights Forum (2008), Can the elections in Zimbabwe be Free and Fair? Paper produced by the Research
and Advocacy Unit [RAU] for the Human Rights Forum, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM.
Reports have been issued by the Zimbabwe Peace Project, the Solidarity Peace Trust, Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch, amongst others.