Harare (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has stepped up preparations to maintain law, order and peace during the general elections due later this year.
National police spokesperson, assistant commissioner Paul Nyathi said officers were undergoing training on law and order, while an investigations committee to deal with election-related crimes had also been set up.
“In terms of our preparations, we are currently conducting public order training for our officers throughout the country and so far we have trained about 75 percent of our police officers as we prepare for the elections. We hope by the end of April, we would have concluded the training exercise,” he said.
“The commissioner general of police, Godwin Matanga has set up special investigations teams throughout the country to act on reports of criminal acts related to elections, and this includes alleged violence,” Nyathi said.
He said the police chief had also set up an elections committee tasked with coordinating deployment of police officers, to ensure all polling stations are protected during voting.
At present, political parties are in the process of selecting candidates to run for the national assembly, senate and local authority elections.
Nyathi said police would not hesitate to make arrests.
“So far we have arrested people from all political parties. I want to assure Zimbabweans that we have got adequate police officers to deploy at polling stations,” he said.
He urged politicians to avoid inflammatory language.
“So far the environment in the country is very peaceful. ZRP is ready for the forthcoming harmonised elections, we appeal to the public to report acts of violence. We will arrest anyone who engages in any form of violence irrespective of one’s political stature,” he said.
Election Resource Centre programs manager, Solomon Bobsibunu said some of the violence by the electorate was a result of ignorance.
“Some of the violence we see happening is out of ignorance of electoral processes. There is a need for massive voter education once election dates have been proclaimed,” he said.
New Ziana
