Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Let peace prevail
Youth Forum
August 01, 2013

With the counting of results underway, the election period still not over at least until the 5th of August, we have learnt a lot from the processes that have been terminated so far. We are proud to say 2013 has observed peace thus far and we welcome the peace that is prevailing. We would like to give Zimbabweans a standing ovation for upholding peace during the critical pre-election and election period. Zimbabweans have just attested that they can do it.

The Election Day was swathed with peace throughout and there were no reports on violence and intimidation around the country. Before sunrise yesterday, determined Zimbabweans were already queuing at polling stations and they confirmed that the process was relatively fair and different from the previous elections.

Zimbabwe has a history of political contestations and recorded election related violence. The year 2008 was marred by intimidation, killings and torture by political parties with Mugabe’s led Zanu-PF being the leading perpetrators. Contrariwise, this year’s pre-election and election period was peaceful and both political parties tried to organize well without using violence as a tool for political expedience.

During the campaigning period, political parties did their campaigns without disrupting each other’s activities and there were even incidents when the two leading parties MDC-T and Zanu-PF would do their campaigns or stick posters side by side. For a change, tolerance triumphed during the campaigning period. Despite some reports on politically motivated violence in some Zimbabwean rural areas, the pre-election period was relatively peaceful.

Zimbabweans have hailed peace as a key milestone to democracy and realizing a peaceful end to elections as a means to consolidate democracy but the country is yet to realize stability with democratic legitimacy. Achieving peace does not mean that we have attained democracy. In as much as we have made a difference as compared to the preceding elections, a lot of reforms still need to be made so that we have free and fair elections in this country. As we make reflections on the systematic campaigns that have been put in place to disrupt voter registration and how thousands of voters have been deliberately disenfranchised, it goes without saying, there is a lot more to be desired for Zimbabwe.

That being the case, the Youth Forum continues to encourage each and every individual to keep upholding peace as we all wait for the verdict of the ballot and to evade all forms of post-election violence.

Visit the Youth Forum fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP