The Daily News (Harare)
21 April 2005
Harare — Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has filed petitions in the electoral court contesting results from 16 constituencies it lost to Zanu PF in last month's polls.
The ruling party won an overwhelming majority in the March 31 elections, but MDC says the elections were "a massive fraud" and alleges ballot stuffing on polling day and intimidation in the run-up to the polls.
"We have filed 16 petitions since last week," MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi said."The 16 constituencies are part of the ones in which in our view the irregularities are extremely evident.
"We could have submitted more but we are pressed both for time and resources. We believe the 16 are enough to make the statement we seek to make - that the elections were rigged," he said.
The elections have been endorsed as "reflecting the will of the people" by observer missions from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region and South Africa.
The elections were closely watched to gauge Zimbabwe's commitment to adhere to Sadc principles on the conduct of democratic polls.
Last week, MDC released a 56-page dossier to back claims that the elections were rigged to hand victory to Zanu PF. The party also resolved to contest the poll results in court and engage in unspecified political action to have them nullified.
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