|
|
Zimbabwe: Court Dismisses MDC Application to Stop Vote Recount
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
SW Radio Africa (London)
18 April 2008
Posted to the web 18 April 2008
Tichaona Sibanda
The Zimbabwe Electoral commission is to proceed with the recount on Saturday of ballots from 23 constituencies in the harmonised elections of March 29th.
This was confirmed by MDC lawyer Alex Muchadehama after a High Court judge on Friday dismissed with costs a legal application by the party to block the recount. The court had twice postponed hearing the MDC challenge this week.
Muchadehama said ZEC has written to the MDC inviting MPs from the affected constituencies to attend the recount. It is not clear whether the MDC will do this, as the party had filed another petition seeking to nullify any new results that may arise from the recount.
Muchadehama said ZEC had moved the ballot boxes to a secret location but they have now been returned to the provincial collation centres in the affected constituencies across the country. There has been no independent monitoring of the ballot boxes since the elections, making it certain that ballot boxes have been stuffed in favour of ZANU-PF during this time.
The MDC lawyer said: "They are covering up for many things in this recount as they certainly want to overturn the majority that the opposition gained in parliament." The MDC also believe that ZANU-PF wants to increase the number of votes cast for Robert Mugabe and reduce those for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to ensure that the two square up in a rerun.
On Thursday the South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad, said South Africa would ensure that the recounts were impartial and objective by sending a team of SADC observers. Speaking in Pretoria Pahad said six SADC observers will be sent to Zimbabwe to "ensure that the opposition parties or their agents were allowed to be present as the process unfolded. And indeed to ensure that this process that the ZEC has called for is within the legal framework and is to the satisfaction of all the parties".
But Pahad failed to explain how this would be possible given the facts on the ground. Do we also assume that SADC observers are hurrying to catch planes to Zimbabwe in time for the 8am recount Saturday, as the recount ruling was only announced late Friday.
The recounts are due to carried out in Buhera South, Chimanimani West, Mutare West, Goromonzi East, Zvimba North, Bikita South, Bikita West, Zaka West, Chiredzi North, Masvingo Central, Masvingo West, Gutu Central, Gutu North, Gutu South, Lupane East, Bulilima East, Zhombe, Silobela, Gokwe-Kabuyuni, Mberengwa East, Mberengwa West, Mberengwa North and Mberengwa South.
|
One question that hasn't been answered about the Presidential results is - how do you recount results, that haven't been announced?
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 SW Radio Africa. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
