By Staff Reporter

“IF anyone causes anarchy, the rule of law will prevail. We will not allow chaos in our country,” president Emmerson Mnangagwa told a campaign rally in Mhondoro on Tuesday.

And in remarks directed at the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance, the Zanu PF leader added; “We now have a certain party that says it wants to shut down Harare and to shut down the country. God forbid!

“We have asked ourselves what this small party intends to do and how it intends to do it and on what grounds.”

Chamisa’s alliance has vowed not to accept anything short of victory in the crunch July 30 elections.

And tensions are rising ahead of the vote after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) rejected Tuesday demands by the alliance regarding the printing and storage of the ballot paper.

ZEC also told political parties that it would not meet the opposition’s demands which include allowing party agents to accompany ballot papers to and from polling stations.

Following that, police refused to sanction a series of protests planned by the MDC Alliance against ZEC.

Principal coalition party, Chamisa’s MDC-T, said it would meet Wednesday to consider its response, warning that they were not ruling out a poll boycott.

Mnangagwa however warned that violence would not be tolerated.

“We say no violence, no violence,” he told Tuesday’s rally which was attended by thousands of supporters.

“We are preaching peace and we are saying everyone, including this small party, has the freedom to go around the country to woo the people’s vote. No one will stop any party from asking the people to vote for them.

“They are free to do so because we have created a democratic space to allow every party to go to the people and campaign freely, but they should do so freely. We do not have a problem with those who say peace is OK.”