Elections in Zimbabwe: never without drama

Elections in Zimbabwe are never uneventful. Just three days to go now and the country’s opposition party supporters and members are definitely feeling the heat.

Amnesty’s Zimbabwe researcher has just returned from mission where he has found that supporters are being intimidated, harassed and subjected to cruel treatment.

Amnesty reports how two supporters of an opposition party were forced by Zimbabwe’s intelligence agency to take down and then to chew and swallow campaign posters.  

Even a British pilot has been has been arrested for no apparent reason other than for flying opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. 

And last night’s ITV's News at Ten uncovered evidence to suggest that the elections weren’t going to be fair and that Mugabe was prepared to cheat to stay in power.

And reports are flying around today that President Mugabe is forcing businesses to cut prices in the run up to elections.  Bloomberg is suggesting that some business will heed this warning, while Reuters reports that the government will not do this.   Either way, with inflation in Zimbabwe currently standing at 100,000 per cent, most people in that country are struggling to buy food anyway.

Well the world’s media and human rights organisations are watching closely Zimbabwe’s elections this weekend. Let’s hope that we’ve seen the last of the turbulence and that the process goes smoothly.