Opposition party supporters in Zimbabwe have been chanting and singing freedom songs outside a courthouse Sunday following a decision to ban them from holding a rally six weeks before national elections
Opposition party supporters in Zimbabwe chanted and sang freedom songs outside a courthouse Sunday following a decision to ban them from holding a rally six weeks before elections.
The court in the town of Bindura upheld Friday’s police order that the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party could not hold the rally to officially launch its election campaign because the venue was unsuitable. The CCC had appealed in court against the order.
The decision increased tensions in the southern African nation, which has a history of violent and disputed elections.
The CCC immediately criticized the move as more evidence of a push by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling ZANU-PF party to silence the opposition using the police and the courts.
Mnangagwa, 80, replaced long-ruling autocrat Robert Mugabe in a coup in 2017. He promised a new era of freedom and prosperity for Zimbabweans, who had seen their country’s economy crumble amid some of the highest inflation rates ever seen.
