Second Round of Voting in The 2008 Zimbabwean Presidential Election - Continued Campaigning, Incidents

• Police detain Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe
• Tsvangirai released by Zimbabwean police

Tsvangirai was detained near Lupane on 4 June, along with his security team and other top MDC officials, such as Thokozani Khupe and Lovemore Moyo. A lawyer for the MDC said that Tsvangirai was alleged to have addressed a rally near Lupane without permission. His vehicle was stopped by police at a roadblock and his motorcade was searched; after two hours, he was taken to a police station. The MDC described this as "part of a determined and well-orchestrated effort to derail our campaign programme", while the US government called the incident "deeply disturbing" and the German government demanded his release; Amnesty International said that it was "part of a sudden, sharp and dangerous crackdown on political opposition in the run-up to the elections". Tsvangirai was released later on the same day after nine hours. Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, rejected any suggestion that the police were trying to interfere in Tsvangirai's campaign; he explained the detention by saying that the police had wanted to determine whether a vehicle in Tsvangirai's motorcade had valid registration. According to Bvudzijena, the police had wanted to take only the driver of this vehicle to the police station to review the relevant documents, but that Tsvangirai and the rest of his entourage insisted on coming as well. Although the MDC said that Tsvangirai was released only after being charged with "attracting a large number of people", Bvudzijena said that he had not been charged. In a statement on 5 June, Tsvangirai vowed to persevere, and the MDC said that he was continuing his campaign.

According to rights activists, ZANU-PF supporters bombed an MDC office in Masvingo Province on 4 June; they said that at least two MDC officials were killed in the blast.

On 5 June 2008, diplomats and local embassy staff from the US and UK investigating political violence were detained at a roadblock in the town of Bindura, 50 miles (80 km) from Harare, by police and military officers. It was claimed by those in the convoy that they were forced off the road at gunpoint after refusing to go to a police station. They reported that tyres on the vehicles were slashed and a Zimbabwean driver was attacked. None of the diplomats was harmed. A police spokesman claimed the officials were being rescued from a dangerous mob. The US government said the attack was "absolutely outrageous" and, along with the UK government, asked for an explanation of the incident. The Zimbabwean ambassador in London was summoned for an explanation.

Subsequently, Deputy Information Minister Matonga gave the government's account of the incident: he said that the diplomats had addressed a gathering at the home of an MDC member and that police arrived at the scene due to commotion. According to Matonga, the diplomats then fled the home but were stopped by the police at a roadblock; after they "refused to disembark", police "deflated the tyres of one of the vehicles". Matonga also expressed the government's outrage at the way the British and Americans were behaving, accusing them of provocations intended to elicit a government response that would "play into their hands". US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said that the US would not forget the incident and that it intended to complain at the UN Security Council.

Also on 5 June, the United Nations announced that it was sending UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios to Zimbabwe to discuss how the UN could assist in the electoral process. At the UN food summit in Rome a few days earlier, Ban Ki-moon had suggested to Mugabe the idea of sending Menkerios to Zimbabwe, and Mugabe agreed; Ban also stressed to Mugabe "the need to stop the violence and to deploy neutral international observers".

After meeting with Mbeki at the World Economic Forum Africa conference on 5 June, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said that Mbeki told him that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai recognised the need for a national unity government, but that they disagreed on the timing: Tsvangirai wanted it to be formed before the run-off was scheduled to be held, while Mugabe wanted it to be formed only after the run-off. Odinga also described Tsvangirai's detention as "detestable" and said that the crisis could only be resolved if South Africa took "a firm stand on the issue".

Also on 5 June, the government banned all international non-governmental organisations from working in Zimbabwe; Social Welfare Minister Goche informed the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations that their activities were banned because they had been violating the terms of those of activities. The ban on NGO activities followed accusations that the agencies were supporting the MDC. They denied these accusations, and the administrator of one of them, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), criticised the suspension as "a direct threat to the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of innocent people in Zimbabwe".

Following the incident involving the diplomats, Biti said at the World Economic Forum conference on 6 June that "it is almost as if the regime is sending out a message to the region, to the international community that it doesn't care, that it has no respect for life, it has no respect for the rule of law." On the same day, the US embassy said that McGee would formally complain to the Zimbabwean Foreign Ministry. Meanwhile, Bvudzijena said that the diplomats had brought the problem on themselves by failing to identify themselves to the police.

The police refused to allow the MDC to hold rallies in Glen Norah, Kambuzuma, Mufakose, and Chitungwiza, on the grounds that the MDC had expressed fears that its leaders could be assassinated; according to the police, it was necessary to prevent the rallies so that the lives of MDC leaders would not be endangered by their appearances at the rallies. The MDC, rejecting this decision, took the matter to the High Court on 6 June, and Judge Alphas Chitakunye ruled on 7 June that the rallies should be allowed to take place without police interference.

Having been released on 5 June, MDC elected MP Eric Matinenga was arrested again early on 7 June and charged with incitement to public violence. Although the charge of incitement was dismissed and Matinenga's release was ordered, police continued to keep Matinenga in custody; his lawyers argued that Augustine Chihuri, the police commissioner, was guilty of contempt of court for failing to release him, and they sought to have Chihuri arrested for this. The Herald also reported on 7 June that 28 MDC supporters and eight ZANU-PF supporters had been arrested in Buhera following the discovery of a variety of weapons.

Chamisa alleged on 8 June that ZANU-PF supporters had prevented the MDC from holding one of the three rallies it planned to have in Harare that day, despite the court ruling allowing the rallies to proceed. Tsvangirai was campaigning in Bulawayo at this time. On the same day, a court ordered that Matinenga be released. Meanwhile, according to The Herald, MDC supporters killed a war veteran and wounded four other ZANU-PF supporters in an attack in Bikita district.

On 9 June, Deputy Attorney-General Johannes Tomana said in The Herald that anyone arrested for involvement in the violence would not be granted bail. Chamisa was critical of this, saying that the purpose of it was to keep MDC supporters in jail and predicting that it would not be applied to ZANU-PF supporters.

The South African newspaper Business Day reported on 10 June that representatives of ZANU-PF and the MDC (Chinamasa and Goche for ZANU-PF, Biti and Elton Mangoma for the MDC) had participated in a late May meeting in South Africa, chaired by South African Minister of Local Government Sydney Mufamadi, at which options for resolving the situation were discussed. Among the possibilities reportedly discussed was a national unity government in which Mugabe would remain President while Tsvangirai would take up a newly-created post of Prime Minister, similar to the arrangement devised to resolve the Kenyan crisis earlier in 2008. Chamisa denied the existence of this meeting in South Africa. In Johannesburg, Makoni reiterated his opposition to holding the run-off and said that negotiations between the two parties on the formation of a unity government were underway. According to Makoni, both Mugabe and Tsvangirai had agreed to a unity government, but that an agreement had not been reached on who would be the "top person" under such an arrangement.

Also on 10 June, according to the MDC, ZANU-PF supporters threw rocks at the home of elected MDC Senator Empire Makamure and burned his car, in addition to setting ablaze two lorries belonging to a businessman thought to support the MDC. Tsvangirai said on the same day that there had been a "de facto coup d'état" and that Zimbabwe was "effectively now run by a military junta", but he vowed to continue his campaign. He said that Mugabe was ultimately to blame for what he described as "state-sponsored violence". According to Tsvangirai, 66 MDC supporters had been killed up to that point, in addition to 200 missing and 3,000 hospitalized. Furthermore, he said that if Mugabe was declared the winner of the election, that would only confirm "the illegitimacy of this regime". Tsvangirai was dismissive regarding speculation about a national unity government.

A new campaign bus for the MDC was debuted in Harare on 11 June. According to Chamisa, this 80-seat bus—painted with the MDC's colours and featuring Tsvangirai's image—was "a new concept to ensure we remain visible under circumstances of violence". Tsvangirai said that the party would go to "every town, village, to meet the people of Zimbabwe".

In Masvingo, ZANU-PF officials said on 11 June that they were sending war veterans to campaign for Mugabe and work against the MDC in the province. On the same day, the government announced that it was lowering taxes for low-wage workers. Meanwhile, the MDC claimed that the government was making people remove satellite dishes so that they would lack access to foreign television, but Minister of Information Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said that in fact only one war veteran had tried to make people take down the dishes and that the government had stopped him.

Biti returned to Zimbabwe on 12 June and was immediately arrested at the airport in Harare. Before his departure from Johannesburg, Biti said that he had already learned that he would be arrested, but maintained that his only crime was "fighting for democracy". Furthermore, he said that it was necessary for him to return to participate in the MDC's struggle, despite describing it as "a stupid decision" for him to do so. Biti also said on this occasion that talks on a national unity government had collapsed because the MDC insisted on having Tsvangirai as President and excluding Mugabe from the arrangement, while ZANU-PF insisted on Mugabe remaining President. He also expressed disappointment with regional efforts to resolve the situation and doubted that the UN would be able to resolve it, saying that Zimbabweans were "on their own – and the sooner we realise it, the better".

Following Biti's arrest, Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, said that he would be charged with treason, based on an MDC document about changing the government. Bvudzijena said that Biti would additionally be charged with making false statements "prejudicial to the state" due to his announcement of election results prior to their release by the Electoral Commission. US Ambassador McGee expressed deep concern on behalf of the US government, saying that the document in question was an unobjectionable statement of the MDC's plans and goals; according to McGee, another, more extreme version of the document existed, but it was forged. He called on SADC to send "three or four times" as many observers as the 400 it planned to send. McGee also alleged that 20 tons of US food aid had been confiscated and distributed to ZANU-PF supporters, contrary to its intended use, in the previous week. McGee said that he had complained about this misappropriation of food aid but that he had received no response: "The bottom line is, they don't care".

While campaigning on 12 June, Tsvangirai was detained twice; after being first detained in Kwekwe for about two hours, he was detained in Gweru, along with about 20 other MDC officials, for about four hours before being released.

At a ZANU-PF rally on 12 June, Mugabe said that war veterans had asked him after the first round if they could "take up arms". According to Mugabe, he replied that he did not want war, but he also vowed that the MDC would never take power, saying that the MDC would forfeit the gains of the liberation struggle and give Zimbabwe "back to our former oppressors, the whites".

On 13 June, Biti's lawyers said that they had not been allowed to meet with him, and they filed an urgent application with the High Court on the same day. The MDC said that it was "deeply worried" about Biti's welfare and that it had sent a team to police stations across Harare, hoping to determine where he was being held. Meanwhile, two MDC campaign buses were impounded by the police. The South African Litigation Centre said on the same day that a number of domestic non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe had been ordered to cease operations by the police, while South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad gave an assurance that his country would work to prevent a civil war from developing in Zimbabwe.

In an open letter on 13 June 39 prominent figures in Africa—including Kofi Annan, former heads of state, and civic leaders—called for a free and fair election, stressing that this was "crucial for the interests of both Zimbabwe and Africa".

Mugabe said at a rally on 14 June that he was willing to step aside at some point in favour of someone else from ZANU-PF, although he did not name the successor he envisioned or the time he planned for this to happen. He remarked, however, that he would "not grow old" "as long as the British still want to come here" and "until we know we no longer have sellouts among us". At a rally on 15 June, Mugabe said that the aid agencies had been suspended for exploiting the need for food aid by encouraging people who received the aid to vote for the MDC. Speaking at Silobela in Midlands Province, he said that "a mere X" (a vote) could not overturn the liberation struggle. In The Herald on 17 June, he again accused the MDC of orchestrating the violence and said that MDC leaders would soon be held responsible for violence committed by their supporters under a law regarding "vicarious responsibility and liability". He also said that hunger and the absence of commodities were not problems worth "selling the country" over.

In the March election, the MDC won 45 of the 46 local council seats in Harare, and Emmanuel Chiroto of the MDC was elected as Mayor of Harare by the councillors on 15 June. Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, has not sworn in the new local administrations, and because the elected Harare councillors were not allowed to meet at Harare's Town House, they met elsewhere to elect Chiroto. On the night of 16 June, Chiroto's house in the suburb of Hatcliffe was attacked and destroyed by ZANU-PF supporters; Chiroto believed that petrol bombs were used. Chiroto's wife and son were taken away by the attackers, although his son was delivered to a police station on 16 June. His wife was subsequently found dead, and Chiroto went into hiding.

On 16 June, UN diplomat Menkerios arrived in Harare; he met with Mugabe on 17 June "to discuss the technical requirements for holding the election, to see what the UN can do to help build capacity for a free and fair election". On the same day, the Nelson Mandela Foundation announced that it had signed the open letter in support of a free and fair election, while Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga, speaking in Washington, DC, described Zimbabwe as "an eyesore on the African continent" and said that he was saddened by the silence of many African leaders regarding the situation. He also criticised the second round as a "complete sham". UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on 18 June that a member of her staff, who had arrived in Zimbabwe on 15 June, had been expelled from the country on 17 June. Also on 18 June, it was reported that Mbeki was visiting Zimbabwe, cancelling a trip to Sudan to do so. On that day, he and Mugabe met in Bulawayo. It was reported that they discussed Biti's arrest and the possibility of Mugabe meeting with Tsvangirai, but this was not confirmed. Mbeki met with Tsvangirai as well on 18 June. Mbeki reportedly wanted the second round to be cancelled in favour of a national unity government, believing that the second round would not resolve the situation. This attempt was reportedly unsuccessful, however.

Ban Ki-moon said on 18 June that he was alarmed by conditions in the period leading up to the election and that, if the situation did not improve, "the legitimacy of the election outcomes would be in question". Meanwhile, Gordon Brown described the Zimbabwean government as a "criminal cabal" and denied the possibility of a free and fair election under the existing circumstances, saying that international observers needed to be freely admitted. Rwandan President Paul Kagame was also critical, condemning the suggestions from ZANU-PF that it might not relinquish power if defeated, while Jacob Zuma also doubted that the election would be free and fair.

Also on 18 June, another elected MDC MP, Shuwa Mudiwa, was arrested in Harare for allegedly kidnapping a girl, while six other elected MDC MPs were declared to be wanted for allegedly engaging in violence. 11 MDC activists, accused of taking down posters of Mugabe and defacing them, were also arrested in Chinhoyi on the same day.

Biti was charged on 19 June. He faced four charges: "treason, communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the State, insulting President Mugabe and causing disaffection among the defence forces".. Prosecutors argued against granting bail to Biti, noting that the charges against him were so serious that he could be executed. The defence submitted an application to have the charges thrown out, but on 20 June magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe dismissed this application, saying that he believed there was "reasonable suspicion that the accused committed the said offence". Biti's next court appearance was set for 7 July, and Guvamombe ordered that he remain in custody until then.

With state media refusing to print or broadcast the MDC's campaign material, Chamisa said on 19 June that the party had applied to the High Court seeking an order to ensure that the MDC could have its campaign material in state media. The party also challenged the police ban on MDC rallies, as well as the practice of having members of the security forces vote early by postal ballot while their superior officers were present. Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) said that it did not broadcast the MDC's advertisements because it objected to the assertions of some of these advertisements that Tsvangirai had already won the election in the first round. It also objected to what it described as "hate language" used in some of the advertisements, while noting that other advertisements which did not include these things were acceptable. Chamisa also said that four MDC activists, allegedly abducted by ZANU-PF supporters on 17 June, had been found dead in Chitungwiza, near Harare; he placed the party's death toll up to that point at "about 70".

Also on 19 June, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe, speaking for SADC, said that there was "every sign that these elections will never be free nor fair". According to Membe, this evaluation was based on what 211 observers already present in Zimbabwe had seen; he said that the observers witnessed two people being shot and killed on 17 June.

Meanwhile, Mugabe, campaigning in Matabeleland North, said in reference to land reform that he would be ready to retire when he believed that "this legacy is truly in your hands people are empowered"; he said that he treasured all Zimbabwean soil and could not allow it to be given back to the British. At a rally in Bulawayo on 20 June, Mugabe said that he was appointed by God and that he could only be removed from office by God. He also said that the MDC claimed its supporters were being victimised only so that it could use this as a basis for allegations that the election was not free and fair.

Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri said on 20 June that the MDC was primarily responsible for the violence, alleging that the party was using its Democratic Resistance Committees to intimidate voters in an effort "to influence the outcome of the elections". Chihuri stressed that the police would not tolerate any violence and said that they were enforcing the law fairly and without regard for political affiliation, despite the MDC's claims to the contrary. According to Chihuri, 390 MDC supporters had been arrested for political violence since the first round, along with 156 ZANU-PF supporters. On the same day, Chamisa suggested that the MDC might withdraw from the election, saying that there was "a huge avalanche of calls and pressure from supporters across the country, especially in the rural areas", expressing opposition to taking part in the run-off under the circumstances. Meanwhile, in a draft statement on 20 June, the EU said that it was prepared "to take additional measures against those responsible for violence", which was viewed as a threat to impose stronger sanctions on Zimbabwe.

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