August 2018 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Analytic interpretation The state of civil military relations was laid bare as the military once again became an arbiter to political disputes in the guise of maintaining order. The arbitrary deployment of the military to deal with violence in the central business district of Harare buttressed the damage that Operation Restore Legacy did much to acclamation of a large number of Zimbabweans, in particular to the police services and incapacitated them from dealing with routine crowd control situations. The pitfalls of the winner takes all system once again came to the fore as victors immediately set out to punish opponents and their supporters by depriving them of economic opportunities and food aid. A proportional representation electoral system may be necessary for inclusivity to ensure less tension in the entire electoral process. The politics of the winner takes all has the victors hounding the losers and the losers find it difficult to accept defeat. Unresolved issues of how the leaders in the main political parties ascended to power leave a bitter taste in the mouth and the subsequent leadership disputes have also been the source of reprisals as the winning factions sought to consolidate their grip on power by victimising those who opposed them. These contradictions also set the stage for bruising intra-party violence after President Mnangagwa hinted that 9