This is the first in the series of Special Reports issued by the Research Unit of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. It displaced the original proposal to deal with gender and constitutional issues. This change was necessitated by the wave of lawlessness which resulted in massive human rights abuses during most of 2000. These abuses were reflected in the political violence which started just before the Constitutional Referendum in February and continued for months after the June elections.
This report attempts to examine all of the facets of the human rights abuses during the electoral period, not merely the election violence itself, which has been extensively reported elsewhere. The electoral period starts with the Referendum on the draft constitutional proposals, and works through the Parliamentary elections to the first by-election held in late November.