Zimbabwe: High Court rules in favor of march organizers

By John Cassim

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AA) - The High Court in Zimbabwe has ruled Friday in favor of organizers of a march for electoral reform in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

Tension and a wave of uncertainty had gripped the capital Friday morning as thousands of opposition party sympathizers, who heeded a call to take part in a march, were ordered to disperse by heavily armed police.

The march, organized by at least 18 political parties under the auspices of a coalition called the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA), was meant to pressure President Robert Mugabe to reform electoral laws ahead of the 2018 polls.

However a police letter Thursday signed by the Harare Central District police chief Newbert Saunyama, discouraged the staging of the march.

"As police we do not have enough manpower to police 150,000 people and considering that our roads in the capital are narrow, we urge you not to march into the City Centre,” the letter said. “The organizers of the march may proceed with a petition to the office of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on their own," the police letter Thursday read.

However lawyers for the opposition political parties filed an urgent application to the High Court citing the letter by the police was vague.

"We made an urgent High Court application to bar the police from blocking the march as their letter was not clear, we anticipated the police would use the wording in their letter to brutally break the mega march, so we have asked protestors to wait for the court order, " lawyer Marufu Mandevere told Anadolu Agency.

The march is expected to begin at noon (1000GMT).

Meanwhile the venue where protestors were scheduled to convene has been occupied by hundreds of armed police.

There are six water canons and several police officers riding horses as they frantically tried to maintain peace and order.

Buses are still bringing people to the site, where thousands have been awaiting the court order.

The march would be the first of its kind in Zimbabwe by all opposition political parties.

Former Mugabe allies Joice Mujuru and Didymus Mutasa would be joining other opposition leaders such as Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Although the march Friday is to force electoral reforms, pressure has been mounting since early July for the 92-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, to resign due to alleged 36 years of misrule.