News / National
Police ready for polls
03 Jun 2013 at 19:52hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Monday said they were ready and prepared for the forthcoming harmonised elections but were not happy with the poor disbursement of funding from the Finance Ministry.
In a press statement yesterday, chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said peace continued to prevail as the country heads towards the elections.
"No major incidents have been reported across the country. There have been no significant cases of any form of violence from the time the country held its peaceful referendum.
"It is important however, to mention that there have been reports of pockets of isolated incidents of intra-party and inter-party violence," she said.
She said a recent case in Waterfalls, Harare where a Zanu-PF youth chairman who was wearing a party T-shirt was assaulted by four MDC-T youths was one such minor report.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said that most of them were squabbles occurring within parties, mostly related to the ongoing and anticipated party primary elections.
She said the ZRP National Elections Command headed by Snr Asst Comm Lee Muchemwa recently toured the 10 provinces to assess the force's state of preparedness for the forthcoming elections.
"ZRP want to put it on record that operationally, the organisation is more than ready for the harmonised elections. It is sad however, to note that administratively we still have a long way to go.
"Preparations in terms of funding for the various police activities related to the running of elections still lag behind.
"Funding is required for the acquisition of fuel, transport, uniforms, travel and subsistence allowance and rations to name but a few," Snr Asst Comm Charamba said.
She said the delays in releasing the necessary funds, by Treasury impacted negatively on their preparations for the elections.
"Some of the resources that should be purchased under normal circumstances have had to wait for events like these. The irony of the matter is that even funds for such events are not disbursed in full.
"ZRP does not want to see a repeat of what transpired during the Referendum where US$20 million was allegedly allocated to the organisation by the Minister of Finance (Tendai Biti), yet only US$11 million was released to the organisation," she said.
She said this was the reason why some officers were not paid their allowances and the police leadership was subsequently blamed for the non-payment of allowances.
"We are already talking of the harmonised elections as if the referendum issues have been resolved.
The Ministry of Finance still owes the ZRP an outstanding US$9 million.
"As we write today, the police has been given US$1,6 million for the voter registration, based on the old budget where police officers were going to be deployed to the 210 constituencies.
"The current position is that police officers have to be deployed in all the 1 963 wards where the registration exercise is to be conducted," she said.
In a press statement yesterday, chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said peace continued to prevail as the country heads towards the elections.
"No major incidents have been reported across the country. There have been no significant cases of any form of violence from the time the country held its peaceful referendum.
"It is important however, to mention that there have been reports of pockets of isolated incidents of intra-party and inter-party violence," she said.
She said a recent case in Waterfalls, Harare where a Zanu-PF youth chairman who was wearing a party T-shirt was assaulted by four MDC-T youths was one such minor report.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said that most of them were squabbles occurring within parties, mostly related to the ongoing and anticipated party primary elections.
She said the ZRP National Elections Command headed by Snr Asst Comm Lee Muchemwa recently toured the 10 provinces to assess the force's state of preparedness for the forthcoming elections.
"ZRP want to put it on record that operationally, the organisation is more than ready for the harmonised elections. It is sad however, to note that administratively we still have a long way to go.
"Preparations in terms of funding for the various police activities related to the running of elections still lag behind.
She said the delays in releasing the necessary funds, by Treasury impacted negatively on their preparations for the elections.
"Some of the resources that should be purchased under normal circumstances have had to wait for events like these. The irony of the matter is that even funds for such events are not disbursed in full.
"ZRP does not want to see a repeat of what transpired during the Referendum where US$20 million was allegedly allocated to the organisation by the Minister of Finance (Tendai Biti), yet only US$11 million was released to the organisation," she said.
She said this was the reason why some officers were not paid their allowances and the police leadership was subsequently blamed for the non-payment of allowances.
"We are already talking of the harmonised elections as if the referendum issues have been resolved.
The Ministry of Finance still owes the ZRP an outstanding US$9 million.
"As we write today, the police has been given US$1,6 million for the voter registration, based on the old budget where police officers were going to be deployed to the 210 constituencies.
"The current position is that police officers have to be deployed in all the 1 963 wards where the registration exercise is to be conducted," she said.
Source - Herald
