Zimbabwe police on Tuesday arrested six youths for distributing fake flyers calling for an opposition boycott of elections in what an activist said may have been a ruling-party tactic to deter voters.
The group was picked up in central Harare carrying a carton full of flyers bearing the logo of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They had just started handing out the flyers, two days before the parliamentary elections, an AFP reporter saw.
“Boycott polls: we are not participating because Zanu-PF have failed to implement the SADC protocol,” read the sheets.
A few observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) also witnessed the arrest.
A MDC member at the scene, who declined to be named, said the flyers were not printed by his party.
“We are not calling for an election boycott at all. We fought hard for our right to vote and we would want to exercise that right to vote freely,” he said.
“We do suspect it’s our main opponent who is scared, who does not want to face a fair contest so that the people can express who they want to govern them,” he said.
“These are clandestine activities of a regime which is running scared, wanting to stop the people from expressing their will freely,” he added.
He said MDC “party intelligence” had found the flyers being distributed in a working-class suburb in Harare and had located the printing house where the sheets were produced.
“We believe 25Â 000 flyers have been printed to date,” he said.
Zimbabwe is holding parliamentary elections on Thursday that will be closely watched as a test of whether Mugabe can hold a free and fair vote in line with guidelines adopted by SADC leaders last year. — AFP