Zimbabwe elections: Violent clashes break out between security forces and opposition supporters who dispute Zanu-PF victory

2nd August 2018

Running battles broke out in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, where troops opened fire on rioting opposition supporters, tanks took to the streets and military helicopters flew overhead, as the country’s elections, which were meant to lead to a future of peace and normality, descended into vicious violence.

At least three people were reported killed and around 30 injured, as supporters of the opposition alliance repeatedly clashed with security forces after the country’s election commission announced that the ruling Zanu-PF had won the country’s parliamentary poll with a large majority.

Initial exchanges saw bottles and rocks flung from the crowd and police responding with tear gas, baton rounds and water cannons, suddenly escalated with the appearance machine-gun mounted armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Troops streamed out of the vehicles into the crowd to, at first, use their rifle butts to hit people and then open fire.

Some military officers claimed later that they had shot back in self-defence after coming under fire. There were sounds of some single shots, but most of it appeared to be staccato controlled bursts of semi-automatic rounds from assault rifles. Road blocks began to be put up shortly after the gunfire and tanks and APCs positioned themselves in Harare city centre.

The violence erupted following a confrontation outside Harare’s Rainbow Towers hotel, where international observers from the European Union, the US and African states were delivering their reports into the election campaign and holding press conferences. The  Zimbabwe Election Commission, meanwhile, was counting up the figures from the final round of constituencies.

The overall consensus among the European and American monitoring teams was that, despite some irregularities and “soft intimidation”, the campaign had been remarkably peaceful compared with what had happened in this country in the past.

The first signs of the strife came as the chairwoman of the Zimbabwe Election Commission, Priscilla Chigumba, said that the victor in the presidential race between 75-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former ally and lieutenant of Robert Mugabe who played a key role in overthrowing him, and Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alliance, would be announced on Thursday afternoon.

SOURCE