“this time we are wiser and we are determined and this must serve as a warning to puppets”. The Head of Prison Service, retired Major General Zimondi, said he would not serve under a President other than Mugabe. He ordered his officers to vote for Mugabe and told them that they would go to hell if they did not do so. The Commander of the Army, General Chiwenga, stated that the army would not recognise a government led by a person other than Mugabe. He dismissed Tsvangirai and Makoni as “sell-outs” and agents of the west. Chiwenga's comments come on the back of indications that hundreds of soldiers have been deployed into the rural areas, the ruling Zanu PF party stronghold, ahead of the elections in an apparent effort to coerce the rural population to vote for Mugabe and his party candidates. In February the government awarded massive salary increases to soldiers’ with the lowest ranked receiving Z$1.3 billion up from $300 million. Coming just a few weeks ahead of the elections, these salary increases were clearly intended as bribes to try to ensure the loyalty of soldiers to the Mugabe Government. After they were given these increases, it was reported that many soldiers were instructed to take leave and go to their rural homes to assist in campaigning for ZANU PF. In past elections, soldiers have played a decisive role in ensuring Mugabe wins the vote in the past two elections through establishing "bases" in rural areas where they have led party militia as coercing agents to intimidate and harass the rural electorate. 6. Policing of elections The police force has been transformed into a politicised force which is there to serve the interests of the ruling party and to suppress the opposition. The Commissioner of Police is a self-proclaimed ruling party supporter. Police officers who are not seen as being ruling party loyalists have been expelled from the force and war veterans and youth militia personnel have been recruited into it. War veterans have often been placed in effective charge of police stations. Police officers who do not vigorously display their complete loyalty to the Mugabe government are at times brutally punished. This police force has become notorious for its partisan application of the law. It clamps down on real or invented contraventions of the law by opposition party members but mostly turns a blind eye even to gross violations of the law by ruling party supporters. Yet this unreformed partisan police force is supposed to be responsible for the impartial application of the electoral laws. 7