Tearfund partners, church leaders and civic groups are stepping up efforts to pressurise Zimbabwe’s government into releasing long awaited election results.
It’s nearly two weeks since the presidential polls closed and voters are no nearer to knowing who their next president will be.
One of our partners in the country, the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, is in a coalition of NGO and civil society groups seeking to put pressure on the authorities.
They are sending delegates to neighbouring countries such as Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa urging them to add their weight to international calls for post-election transparency.
Tomorrow Zambia is hosting an emergency summit called by the Southern Africa Development Community between Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to try and break the deadlock.
Riot police
The meeting comes after Mr Tsvangirai ruled himself out of taking part in any secondary run-off election.
The mood inside Zimbabwe seems to be one of increasing resignation to the impasse, according to a Tearfund partner.
`People have started to get back to continuing with life as usual and thinking there is nothing they can do,’ she said.
She observed that the state-controlled media is scaremongering by harking back to 1980 when the country gained independence, telling people that the opposition is going to give the country back to white rule.
On the streets there is an air of intimidation: `There is a lot of security presence in Harare,’ she noted.
`The police are not wearing their normal uniform but instead their riot gear and carrying long sticks. People are scared.’