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Zanu PF has resolved to bar the opposition MDC party from campaigning in the rural constituencies and will use war veterans to effect this strategy, a senior party official has said.

In what is promising to be a repeat of last year's parliamentary election campaign scenario when war vets terrorised villagers and effectively barred the opposition from campaigning in rural areas, the party has again vowed to jealously guard what it considers to be its stronghold.

War veterans secretary-general Andy Mhlanga told The Standard last week: "We are saying that the MDC must not address any rallies in the rural areas and we do not want a situation where MDC supporters from Harare constituencies are holding rallies in Murehwa. This is not going to be accepted by the war veterans. We are going to do what we used to do during the liberation struggle when the rural areas were prohibited zones for the enemy."

The MDC boasts of having support from the urbanites so let them organise their rallies with these people and leave our rural supporters alone," said Mhlanga.

Asked to comment on Mhlanga's statement, Zanu PF secretary for information and publicity, Nathan Shamuyarira, said the party would not stand in the way of the war veterans.

"They are part of us and it's part of our campaign strategy to concentrate on the rural areas where the majority of our supporters are," said Shamuyarira.

Of the 57 seats the MDC clinched in last year's parliamentary elections, only 15 were from rural constituencies. On the other hand, 56 of Zanu PF's 62 seats were from rural areas.

Mhlanga said the decision was reached by war veterans at the Zanu PF National People's Conference held in Victoria Falls two weeks ago.

The decision to seal off rural areas, comes in the wake of Mugabe's declaration that his party would wage a war against the MDC in order to win the presidential poll.

The violent campaign by Zanu PF has since the run-up to last year's general election, left at least 82 opposition supporters dead.

The orgy of terror by war veterans seen mainly in rural areas and the farming community has mostly targeted opposition supporters and white farmers.

The presidential election has taken on a new dimension with Zanu PF training a youth militia for deployment in the country's 10 political provinces to wage a violent campaign.

Mhlanga warned urban dwellers that if they visited their families in the rural areas they should not spread the "MDC gospel".

"We also know that some of the people from the towns are visiting their folks in the rural areas...and then they start campaigning for the MDC in townships and at growth points. Let them be warned that we will be on the look out for them and will be monitoring them," said Mhlanga.

The latest move by Zanu PF is also aimed at thwarting the MDC's efforts to penetrate the highly conservative rural areas where it has already made headway through the setting up structures in every constituency.

But the party remains defiant in the light of the Zanu PF "ban". Party spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe said: "War veterans can ban the MDC from campaigning, but they cannot stop the people from casting their votes at the ballots to determine who should be their next president. The issue is that we have a de facto state of emergency. We simply have to try to put our messages across despite all these threats and violence in the rural areas."

At the Zanu PF people's conference in Victoria Falls last weekend, Mugabe railed at the town people for failing to support Zanu PF but expressed gratitude to the rural electorate for being loyal.

Encouraging a vigorous campaign, Mugabe said: "What we are now headed for is a real war, a revolutionary war. We have to move like a military machine and you must prepare your own unit to move forward. This is no longer just a contest. This is a revolutionary war." - Zimbabwe Standard

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