from MARCUS MUSHONGA in Harare, Zimbabwe
HARARE – SUSPECTED opposition supporters have reportedly been denied food aid and threatened with war if the ruling Zimbabwe African Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) lost general elections scheduled for Monday.

These are the latest allegations of intimidation and harassment, mainly in rural communities, as the Southern African country braces for the first polls to be held without the now-overthrown longtime president, Robert Mugabe.

Human rights groups said they had recently documented incidents whereby ZANU-PF party officials and supporters threatened a repeat of the 2008 violence if ZANU-PF and incumbent president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, lost.

Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC Alliance) and National Patriotic Front (NPF), formed recently by sympathisers of Mugabe, have reportedly been threatened with eviction if the ruling party lost.

They have allegedly been ordered to “repent.”

Mugabe and ZANU-PF are accused of using violence to win previous elections, particularly in 2018 when Mugabe suffered his first defeat, to the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, now late.

Human Rights Watch has also documented the alleged denial of food aid to suspected supporters of the opposition in drought-prone areas.

Over 2 million Zimbabweans are experiencing food shortages after successive droughts.

In the eastern Nyanga this week, the wife of a village head allegedly seized food aid allocations to 11 people whom she accused of supporting the MDC Alliance.

NPF supporters in Rushinga, Mashonaland Central Province, reported ward chairpersons in ZANU-PF regalia at a distribution point denied them social welfare food aid.

Mnangagwa has appealed for an end to a culture of intimidation ahead of the polls.
– CAJ News