Conrad Dube Mwanawashe, AfricaNews reporter in Harare, Zambabwe
Zimbabwean villager Thomas Karimba has scars on the face and arms from burns he suffered in an arson attack - a permanent reminder and he shivers at the thought of another poll. Karimba escaped with burns when he bolted from a hut in which his wife and son perished in the run-up to the polls in which scores were killed and thousands left homeless.
Nearly three years on, the torched hut remains without a roof while the walls are crumbling as Karimba has not received any compensation or assistance to rebuild.
Talk that Zimbabwe could hold another election this year to vote a successor to the country's power-sharing government sends shivers down Karimba's spine.
“It’s traumatising,” Karimba says, his face careworn. “How much more should we suffer? I
know they will come for us again and probably this time they make sure
I’m dead."
Grace Samunda of Mhondoro concurs with Karimba.
Samunda's husband was abducted during the 2008 election campaign and never seen again
“We are not ready for yet another round of torture and killings,” said Samunda.
She added: “Why are they pushing for another elections when we have not been compensated for the loss we suffered? I do not want any election until those responsible for our troubles are dealt with.”
President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party are pushing for an election in 2011.
But his counterpart in the transitional Government and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai has said that there can be no credible election in Zimbabwe before a plethora of reforms including amendments to electoral laws.
Civil society organisations have argued that Zimbabwe is not ready for another election saying national healing, key to peaceful elections, has not been carried out. Victims of political violence still clamour for compensation and the arrest of the perpetrators of the violence. Heal Zimbabwe a non-governmental organisation involved in assisting victims of political violence, said human rights abuses witnessed during the last elections, were on the increase.
“Zimbabwe cannot be ready for elections when victims of political violence are still wallowing in abject poverty as consequences of the 2008 political violence and no justice has prevailed since the formation of the Inclusive Government,” Heal Zimbabwe said.
“Houses were burnt, property destroyed, some people are still missing, some are still to be buried, and some are still to receive treatment for the injuries sustained during the election violence of 2008,” the NGO added.
Heal Zimbabwe has been conducting public consultative meetings in Midlands, Mashonaland Central, east, Masvingo and Matabeleland on the readiness of communities on elections and found that there was a general consensus that the national healing process should be the starting point before any call for elections and that the form, process and content of the national healing process should come from the grassroots themselves especially from victims of political violence.
From a survey carried out by Heal Zimbabwe during the consultative meetings, 67% of the participants highlighted that there can only meaningfully participate in elections if they are supervised by the international community as they cannot bear the resurgence of the 2008 political violence.
The 2008 elections were marred by violence which left scores of people dead and thousands injured and displaced.
Mugabe was sole candidate in the presidential run-off election after Tsvangirai pulled out citing violence against his supporters. Tsvangirai's party said at least 300 of its supporters were killed in poll violence.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), said reforms meant to ensure more freedoms to locals have not yet been implemented. ZESN said electoral reforms had to be carried out to ensure that disadvantaged groups are allowed to vote.
“Soldiers, police, disabled, diasporans are not free to vote where they want,” said ZESN.
The NGO noted the continued incarceration of political activists and those perceived to be in the opposition, a partisan of the police and lack of security of human rights defenders as some of the inhibitions to a free and fair election.
ZESN said no freedom of expression, though Article XIX of the GPA guarantees media freedoms- recent arrests of a leading independent newspaper editor and journalists, shows that more work needs to be done before another election can be held in Zimbabwe.
ZESN noted that the electoral system has still not been cleared of political landmines.
“The environment is not conducive for free and fair elections,” said ZESN noting that partisan electoral officers, the use of inflammatory language by the police and the army aided by a partisan public media would hamper the holding of a free election.
Elections in Zimbabwe have proven to be one of the major arenas of human rights abuses where the country records its highest cases of human rights abuses.
Traditionally, elections in the country have been marred by intense state-sponsored violence and it is one of the tactics of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party.
Cases of human rights violations have been documented and some of the many cases of political violence that were reported during the elections period were dismissed by the partisan police.
At present there are no concrete mechanisms that have been put in place to guarantee that Zimbabwe would not have another violent infested election period.
Perpetrators of political violence are still to be brought before justice thus making it easy for the same perpetrators to continue victimizing people.
Zimbabwean villager Thomas Karimba has scars on the face and arms from burns he suffered in an arson attack - a permanent reminder and he shivers at the thought of another poll. Karimba escaped with burns when he bolted from a hut in which his wife and son perished in the run-up to the polls in which scores were killed and thousands left homeless.
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