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Budiriro parliamentary by-election
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
May 19, 2006

The candidate for the MDC pro-senate faction Gabriel Chaibva, President of the faction Arthur Mutambara, Priscilla Misihairambwi MDC MP for Glen Norah and about fifty- six supporters were today detained for several hours at Glen View police station. According to the candidate, Gabriel Chaibva, the team, which was travelling in a convoy of five vehicles, was campaigning in the area ahead of the by-election scheduled for tomorrow.

Meanwhile the team has been released without being charged though the report from our observer who was following up on the incident says, the police had intended to charge the candidate for failing 'to prevent a public gathering' in terms of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) while the rest of the team were to be charged 'for acting in a manner likely to endanger the public' in terms of the Road Traffic Act and 'the conduct likely to provoke the breach of peace' in terms of the Miscellaneous Offences Act. A ZEC official and the MDC pro-senate lawyers are said to have intervened leading to the release of the group.

Unconfirmed reports from police sources alleged that one of the supporters of this faction who was also in the group pulled a pedestrian as they were driving by causing minor injuries.

Besides these incidents, our observers who are already monitoring the pre-election environment in the constituency have reported that the environment is generally calm.

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