World

Zimbabwe voter awareness campaigners arrested

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A community group in Zimbabwe says a pastor and three activists were arrested for holding a voter education meeting a day after President Robert Mugabe announced March 16 as the date for a referendum on a new constitution.

The Center for Community Development said Sunday the four were campaigning for people to register as voters for the referendum and national elections later in the year. They were detained in police cells in Chegutu town, 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Harare, on unspecified charges after the Saturday meeting. Under sweeping security laws, political gatherings require police clearance.

The Zimbabwe prime minister's party has called for the security laws to be urgently repealed ahead of polling. Another two rights and democracy groups have been raided by police in the past week.

Related Headlines

  • Zimbabweans vote in favor of new constitution

    Zimbabwe's electoral body said Tuesday that 94.5 percent of voters cast a ballot in favor of a new constitution that calls for a strengthening of human rights and a curb on ... 

  • Zimbabwe police arrest PM's officials, top lawyer

    Zimbabwe police arrested the country's most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials with the prime minister's party on Sunday, a day after the nation voted in a ... 

  • ZIMBABWE CLAMPDOWN

    Zimbabwe groups: election intimidation building

    Elections in Zimbabwe are still months away, but already President Robert Mugabe's party is intimidating its opponents and threatening violence, human rights and pro-democracy ... 

  • Zimbabwe to vote on new constitution

    One campaign ad on the Internet shows video footage of a lawmaker in Zimbabwe's tenuous coalition government punching a Cabinet minister appointed by President Robert Mugabe.