The MDC rocked by arrests of its members which it blames on a “well-orchestrated” campaign to stop it from campaigning, according to national spokesman Douglas Mwonzora.

Mwonzora yesterday bared it all to the Daily News as more than 50 MDC youths were languishing in various Bulawayo police cells following their arrests in the city on Saturday.

Today one of the party’s regalia shop assistants, Barnabas Mwanaka who was severely assaulted while in police custody, and seven others are set to appear in court.

“Zanu PF realises that it is very weak and know that they are very likely to lose an election.

“They want to make MDC weaker ahead of an election. Zanu PF’s structures are very weak that they are even struggling to come up with suitable candidates for councillors. It is also a way by factions within Zanu PF to collapse the Government of National Unity (GNU),” Mwonzora said.

“All this is calculated to stop free and fair elections. This police brutality will make the MDC unable to campaign. With decimated structures, you are unable to campaign. An election where other parties are campaigning with decimated structures may seem free and fair on the surface but it will be unfair.”

“This brutality (police) is the commencement of an unfair electoral environment. It is a calculated move to intimidate the MDC."

“It acts as an encouragement for the Zanu PF militia to continue their acts of impunity,” Mwonzora lashed out.
Police, have, however, said they have not launched a crackdown against the MDC but are on an exercise to clean up the city in a joint operation with the Harare municipal police.

Last week, police violently clashed with vendors near First Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue leading to several arrests, including those of Daily News journalists.

Hard on the heels of the clashes, heavily armed police raided Harvest House, the MDC Headquarters, in what they said was a bid to flush out activists who were “masquerading” as vendors allegedly harboured by the party.

“We are getting closer to arresting those culprits who masquerade as vendors yet they are political activists,” said Oliver Mandipaka, police spokesman.

Pro-democracy and rights groups have accused police of using knee-jerk reaction in dealing with citizens and perceived opponents of President Robert Mugabe.

Recently, rights lawyers slammed the abuse of the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) which they claimed had been abused for “unmitigated repression.”

“Posa has been used by law enforcement agents and rulers of the land for purposes of unmitigated repression,” Chris Mhike, a human rights lawyer observed.

“The situation has been worsened by rulers who selectively apply the law, with a clear pattern of heavy application of repressive laws only on those who are deemed to be enemies of the state,” said Mhike.

Legal experts believe the restrictions imposed by Posa on individual rights to freedom of assembly are unconstitutional and undemocratic.

On Saturday, Police crushed the MDC’s Youth Assembly Bulawayo’s solidarity march dubbed “Free Solomon Madzore”, meant to drum up support for the incarcerated youth leader who has been rotting in remand prison on allegations of playing a part in the murder of a policeman in Glen View last year.

Madzore and other party activists have so far failed in their bid to get bail for various reasons, in circumstances widely suspected to be politically-motivated.

Mugabe and Zanu PF insist that elections should be held this year to bring to an end the power sharing agreement consummated after the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) on September 15, 2008.

But both formations of the MDC and GPA guarantors, Sadc — have said elections should be held once reforms have been instituted including the writing of a new constitution

By Daily News