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Police ban MDC rallies
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
May 14, 2008

Police in Harare have barred the MDC from holding public rallies although Zanu PF is holding similar rallies as the country prepares to hold a presidential run-off.

The MDC had planned to hold three separate rallies in Mufakose and Budiriro on 10 and 11 May 2008 and at the Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare on 18 Saturday, May 2008.

However, police officers at Southerton Police Station refused to accept notification papers from the MDC.

Following the provisions of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the MDC had tried to notify the police of its plan to hold the three rallies in Harare. However, police authorities at Southerton Police Station refused to even accept the letters from the MDC officials.

After the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced that Zimbabweans should prepare for a presidential run-off, Zanu PF has been holding rallies across the country. Grace Mugabe, Elliot Manyika and other Zanu PF officials and so-called war veterans have been holding rallies throughout the country but the same opportunity is being denied to the party and the leader who won the historic election on 29 March 2008.

The political atmosphere is biased towards the outgoing regime. Zimbabweans cannot freely express themselves in the so-called run-off when they are being battered every day and when they are being denied their basic rights and freedoms of association and assembly.

We also note with concern that the state media continues to besmirch and tarnish the image of the MDC and its leaders. According to the country's electoral laws, there should be equal access to the media during this period but the ZBC and Zimpapers have made it their prime function to malign and soil the image of President Morgan Tsvangirai in particular and the MDC in general.

George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman who is also the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Publicity, told state media editors last week that the MDC should not be granted access to radio, television and the print media in the run-off period. He told the stunned editors that this time there would be no sticking to the Electoral Act and the MDC should continue to receive negative coverage in the publicly funded media.

We hope that SADC, the African Union and the United Nations continue to keep the events in Zimbabwe under the microscope. If observers and monitors are not expeditiously deployed to this troubled spot, the humanitarian crisis will continue to escalate. The international community may wake up to find a crisis of great magnitude that will be difficult to control and avert.

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