By AFP

THE MDC Alliance on Wednesday condemned the army for opening fire on protesters who were demonstrating against alleged fraud in the country’s election, after three people were killed.

“We saw the deployment of military tanks and the firing of live ammunition for no apparent reason. We condemn in the strongest sense the action taken today,” MDC Alliance presidential spokesman Nkululeko Sibanda told reporters.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) said the army had to intervene to help disperse MDC Alliance supporters because it did not have the capacity to deal with the crowd.

The police deployed 71‚000 officers countrywide ahead of the high stakes elections held on Monday. Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba‚ appearing on state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) during the 6 PM bulletin‚ said they didn’t have enough resources‚ including their reserve force‚ to deal with a situation of this magnitude.

“We requested for the assistance of Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) for the suppressing of the commotion and disturbances in Harare central business district.

“This development has been necessitated by the fact that the degree of disturbances of law and order have reached a magnitude where our regular police officers as well as our reserve members have been unable to cope‚” she said.