10 Journalists, MDC Alliance Protestors Arrested At ZEC Offices
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has reportedly arrested 10 journalists together with an unknown number of opposition MDC Alliance activists who were protesting the exclusion of the party from stakeholder meetings spearheaded by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
This is happening amid a push by various organisations including Tag a Life International (TaLI), Fojo Media Institute, Identities Media TV and the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services to raise awareness on the Freedom of Information Act for vulnerable groups and journalists.
In July 2021, TaLI and its partners launched the My Freedom of Information campaign for that cause.
Writing on microblogging site, Twitter, MDC Alliance national spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere said the development suggests that the government was in a panic mode. She said:
This morning, 10 journalists were arrested along with MDC Alliance protesters who were outside the Harare provincial offices of @ZECzim to demonstrate against the unconstitutional conduct of ZEC in excluding our party from stakeholder meetings. The regime is panicking.
ZEC said they excluded the opposition MDC Alliance from its provisional consultations in provinces meant to discuss electoral developments saying they don’t know who the MDC Alliance is.
The commission is rolling out programmes to discuss the electoral concerns, the legal framework, the electoral cycle, voter registration, delimitation and the polling process in preparation for future elections.
Commenting on the exclusion, Mahere said the development was confirmation that ZEC was partisan and serves the interests of the governing ZANU PF adding that the MDC Alliance is the biggest political party in the nation.
She also said there is no lawful excuse for barring the party from stakeholder engagement.
