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In the course of the past week, opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai was twice detained by police for hours while campaigning. Nine supporters sheltering in a rural party office were attacked last Wednesday by a militia, shot at and set on fire; at least three were killed. The party's rallies in several of the most hotly contested areas were banned, and Mr. Tsvangirai is likewise banned from all broadcast media, which are state-controlled.
On Thursday, the government accused aid agencies that provide food and health care of covertly assisting the opposition, and indefinitely barred the groups from operating. It was one more harsh reminder to the populace of the power of President Robert Mugabe's state, which is now run by a shadowy military clique called the Joint Operations Command.
On Sunday, party workers putting up MDC posters on electricity poles in the city of Bulawayo were attacked by police; it was reported that one man's legs were broken with a baseball bat. Mr. Tsvangirai's armoured campaign car was impounded by police last week - and now, the party says, a candidate for Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF is brazenly using it....and it gets worse...
Yesterday, the government announced that it would keep anyone arrested for election-related violence in jail without bail until after the vote:.....the government insists the MDC is to blame for "inciting" most of the violence, and so the move is widely seen in Zimbabwe as a convenient way to jail any MDC organizers who aren't already injured or in hiding.....
That, of course, is the critical question for the MDC: How can Mr. Tsvangirai hope to win an election when his supporters have been relentlessly terrorized since the first poll?
The MDC is, in essence, trapped, with no choice but to contest the election regardless of how many barriers the government throws up, otherwise Mr. Mugabe will simply declare himself president again....
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