By Kudakwashe Matambo
While decrying the state of the nation and calling out misconducts by security forces and human rights offenders, the Catholic Church’s bishops have remained hopeful and consistent in their call for peaceful electoral processes in Zimbabwe.
The Church leaders’ pastoral letters including The March is not Ended, The Zimbabwe We Want and the most recent, The Elections We Want, are a sign of persistence and hope for a change in conduct of public processes.
The Catholic Bishops, together with the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHCOD), repeated in the most recent letter, The Elections We Want, their insistent and peremptory request for peaceful and credible elections in Zimbabwe.
In the statement, published in February 2022, church leaders urged security forces to act in a “professional and non-partisan conduct” to avoid loss of lives.
“The promotion of peace by all stakeholders is of paramount importance (citizens, candidates and political parties, Government and Chapter 12 Commissions, Church etc) and this should be the utmost priority for all,” read the statement.
They further stated that by elections should be guided by “professional and non-partisan conduct of our security forces as they discharge their constitutional duties,” and that there should be an “absence of a single soul that is lost before, during and after the by elections due to political violence.”
In 2018, after some members of the public and opposition parties disputed the elections results, protests erupted mainly in the capital city Harare, resulting in the deployment of armed soldiers and anti-riot police.
At least 6 people died in the post-election violence.
The Church leaders have also urged the “Election Management Body (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) and other relevant institutions to provide timely, accurate and complete information to the electorate to enable them to make informed decisions throughout the election period.”
The Elections We Want statement was signed by Archbishop Robert Ndlovu as the head of Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop L M Khanye of Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), Bishop N Muparutsa- Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and Bishop P N Makamba – Union for Development of Apostolic and Zionist Churches in Zimbabwe (UDACIZA).
Zimbabwe will hold by-elections in 28 constituencies for members of parliament who seek to fill positions left vacant mainly due to recalls by political parties.
Catholic institutions like National Movement of Catholic Students (NMCS) have also gone on a drive to target young voters through their Pray, Register, Vote campaign.
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) National Coordinator, Mr Paul Muchena also confirmed, that like in previous elections, CCJP will mobilise, train and deploy election observers for the by and harmonised elections.
“ CCJPZ has already mobilised resources for observer training, deployment and documentation of the pre-By-election, By-election day and post-By-Election day.”
About 480 diocesan based observers for the March 26 2022 by Elections will be trained and deployed.
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