An image of a civilian lying in a pool of blood after he was shot during yesterday’s demonstration against the delay by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in announcing the presidential results for Monday’s elections sent shockwaves throughout the world.
Here was a breadwinner who was shot as he could have been caught up in the demonstration by MDC Alliance supporter. It will be a blot on the harmonised elections which observers said was held in a peaceful environment.
The demonstration and subsequent violence was against ZEC’s delays in announcing the results.
ZEC was as of late afternoon yet to publish results of the presidential election.
But a group marched towards the Rainbow Towers and Harare International Conference Centre, being the national command centre for the harmonised election.
They claimed ZEC wanted to steal the election.
Like a Hollywood action clip, a helicopter flew above the crowd while tanks and armed soldiers later stepped in to help police control the crowds.
Cannons fired high stream velocity water at protesters, tossing them into the air like mere pieces of paper on a windy day.
Shots were fired into the air. Three lives were lost and several were injured.
Armed soldiers cleared the streets of Harare with batons and whips, striking seemingly without discretion.
Whatever the reasons for the protests, it appears they were sparked by statements made Tuesday by MDC Alliance partner Tendai Biti that the party’s presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa had won and the alliance had many options to defend its vote. Biti claimed ZEC was trying to rig elections.
A defeat by Zanu PF in the National Assembly that was to follow his remarks no doubt irked party supporters who took the reckless statements as gospel truth.
Chamisa had a few hours soon after the poll claimed victory; “Winning resoundingly…We now have results from the majority of the over 10 000 polling stations. We’ve done exceedingly well. Awaiting ZEC to perform their constitutional duty to officially announce the people’s election results and we are ready to form the next government.”
A day before elections Chamisa announced victory was certain.
“Any election outcome that will have Mnangagwa as a victor is not an election, but fiction. I have said it before and I will say it again. We are very clear of the will of the people. It’s not as if an election is going to be conducted on planet Mars or in heaven, it’s an earthly election in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“So any skullduggery, shenanigans, manipulations, corruption of the election is not going to be acceptable in this country.”
Politics of violence should be shunned and leaders who resort to violence to settle grievances should not be acceptable in this century.
The fact of the matter remains, whatever the reason, violence and force is not the way to go.
Storming a hotel full of foreign VIP guests and which also happens to be the national command centre for elections that are yet to be concluded is certainly not the best of ideas and with absolute certainty such a clumsy move would force the security forces to react.
It became obvious the game had changed when the army was deployed after police failed to calm the situation. Clearly it was no joke anymore and innocent lives were lost, while several others were injured.
Violence must be shunned. We need peaceful leaders who are not trigger happy and excited by endangering the lives of ordinary people.
