Freedom of assembly and freedom of association are fundamental democratic rights, essential for the holding of democratic elections. For elections to be free and fair, all political parties must be allowed to campaign freely in the period leading up to elections. They must have the right to hold meetings and rallies in order to explain their policies to voters and try to persuade voters to elect them to power. They must exercise their rights in a peaceful manner, however, and reasonable measures may be taken to protect public order if abuse of their rights leads to violence. The police force and other law enforcement agencies are expected to ensure that these rights can be freely exercised. In the past, however, the police force has freely allowed meetings and demonstrations by ruling party supporters, but has frequently disallowed and brutally broken up meetings and demonstrations by the opposition and by organisations that are critical of the Mugabe administration. Thus the right to freedom of assembly was effectively taken away from those who opposed the current government The SADC mediation led to certain changes to the law which were intended to help restore the right of freedom of peaceful assembly of everyone. Regrettably, the changes have not had this effect because the police force is applying the provisions in a blatantly biased fashion and is finding tenuous excuses for preventing opposition parties and “unfriendly” non-governmental organisations from mounting protest marches. It is also continuing to obstruct electioneering by the opposition parties by disallowing some of their rallies. This is illustrated by the following incidents: From December 2007 to Mid March 2008. ➢ In December 2007 the police allowed a “Million Man March”, organised by supporters of President Mugabe, to proceed. In January 2008, on the other hand, they banned a “Freedom March” organised by the opposition MDC in Harare and also prohibited MDC “Freedom Marches” in two other centres. ➢ The police violently dispersed marches by civic organisations such as Woman of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and refused to allow a meeting by a Christian organisation. ➢ The police intervened in a partisan way in a dispute between an Anglican bishop who is sympathetic towards President Mugabe and a bishop who has been installed in his place and assaulted congregants loyal to the new bishop. ➢ Nine leaders of the Progressive Teachers Association of Zimbabwe were allegedly set upon by ZANU (PF) militia while they were distributing fliers in the Central Business District of Harare setting out their organisation’s views on the education crisis in Zimbabwe. They were allegedly taken to an underground room at the nearby ZANU (PF) offices where they were severely beaten with sticks and metal 10