Zimbabwe Puts Security Forces on ‘High Alert’ as Vote Approaches
Zimbabwe Puts Security Forces on ‘High Alert’ as Vote Approaches
(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s government put its security forces on high alert before the July 30 presidential election as some opposition parties threatened to protest against voting irregularities and incorrect printing of ballot papers.
“Those bent causing disorder are being warned that the long arm of the law will be applied without fear or favor," Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu told reporters late Monday in the capital, Harare. The government is “deeply concerned with threats of violence” and warnings that the country will be shutdown and rendered “ungovernable.”
Opposition parties are taking on President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, which has ruled the country for 38 years. The vote will decide who will lead the southern African nation into a new era following the ouster of Robert Mugabe in November.
To contact the reporter on this story: Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels, Andre Janse van Vuuren
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