Stop instigating violence, The Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice urges ZEC, political parties, activists, army and the police in Zimbabwe

The demonstrations by concerned Zimbabweans who felt that their golden votes were being tampered with but ended up being violent should not be repeated at all. The somewhat partisan behaviour of the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) fueled the violence and the deaths of at least six innocent people. ZEC should learn to respect the people who cast their votes and what is crystal clear is that the delays in announcing the results caused the violence. This is not new since the same was experienced in 2008.

However, the people of Zimbabwe should remain calm and use lawful means to raise their concerns such as taking the disputes to court.

Rev. Jackie Ngulube the Director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice condemned the involvement of the army in the maintenance of law and order which usurped the mandate of the Zimbabwe Republic Police ” The reason you separate military and police is that the army fights the enemies of the state and the police serves and protects the people. When the army becomes both, then the enemies of the state becomes the people. It was a fatal mistake to rope in the army in the maintenance of law and order. This should not be repeated” he says.

Meanwhile, the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice condemns institutions that rushed to legitimise the elections when in actual fact there were several irregularities that affected the fairness, freeness and credibility of the Zimbabwean election outcome. The SADC, AU and ZESN (including its members) should learn to be objective instead of rushing and giving a blind eye to a plethora of electoral irregularities experienced, before, during and after the July 30 election. Furthermore, the behaviour of SADC and AU is worrisome since the same electoral guiding principles by SADC and AU were violated yet on the other side they give a blind eye by legitimising the elections. This explains why development problem in Africa will never end.

Source: Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice

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