Unusual heavy police presence at NERA Demo yesterday

zwnews.com Political Reporter

Yesterday Harare Police mounted roadblocks to all roads leading into the capital city Harare, from morning to afternoon.

ZimNews witnessed instances were buses and kombis were being literary searched and passengers asked to disembark at some points, as police look for what they deem dangerous weapons items.

The heavy police is being viewed as a ploy by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to cow-down marchers from expressing their dismay against the government over the way it is handling the electoral reform agenda in the country.

Meanwhile over thousands demonstrators were forced to  gather at Freedom Square since morning after being confined  there by ZRP who stopped the marchers from entering the central Business District to deliver their petition.

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai later addressed the protesters. The protests were called by National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) to protest the acquisition of Bio-metric Voter Register (BVR) kit by the Zimbabwean government.

A coalition of political parties, civic organization as well as ordinary citizens have accused the government of trying to undermine the democratic principle of separation of power between the executive and independent statutory bodies, and the independence of the electoral body, the Zimbabwe Elections Commission (ZEC).

Opposition political parties in NERA are rejecting the proposals by government to procure the BVR kits.

The position by the political parties comes after statements attributed to the Minister of Finance disclosed that the government has decided to take over procurement process from the United Nations Development Programmed.

In preparation for the Biometric Voter Registration process, a polling station mapping exercise is already underway in the country and political parties are participating actively through the mapping subcommittees which provide oversight to the ZEC Mapping Sub-committee.