Zimbabwe: By-Election

Question: What are your views on the recent Zimbabwe by-election?

Answer: We condemn the violence, intimidation, and irregularities that occurred prior to and during the March 27-28 Zengeza parliamentary by-election. The election’s improprieties preclude it from being regarded as free and fair. The by-election should have been a routine and peaceful expression of a local constituency’s political will. Instead, it has become another symbol of the ruling party’s pursuit of electoral victories at the expense of the peaceful expression of democratic rights in Zimbabwe. Voting irregularities witnessed by U.S. diplomats and other observers include acts of intimidation against lines of voters by ruling party supporters; electoral officials lining up voters according to party affiliation; and a high incidence of “assisted voting.”

2004/348