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Zimbabwe: Country Delays Presidential Second Round Vote By 90 Days
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The Nation (Nairobi)
16 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Kitsepile Nyathi
Nairobi
Zimbabwe's run-off presidential election will now be held within 90 days of May 2, when the official results of the disputed vote were released, the government announced on Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), with the approval of the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, on Wednesday changed the law that says the poll must be held within 21 days of the first official results being announced to 90 days.
In a special government gazette notice published on Wednesday, Mr Chinamasa said: "Not withstanding Section 110 of the Electoral Act, the period within which a second election for the office of the president is hereby extended from 21 days to 90 days from the date of announcement of results of the first poll."
The government has defended the controversial decision, saying the ZEC has powers to change the electoral laws.
However, Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the first round of voting on March 29 but failed to garner the mandatory majority votes, said the change was "illegal and unfair". "It is clearly an illegal act and as the MDC, we want the election to be held within the 21 days and not 90 days," he said. "We need the run-off like yesterday."
He said the delay was part of a programme to give Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF time to "torment and continue a campaign of violence".
The MDC says 32 of its supporters have been killed and close to 1,000 seriously injured in political violence blamed on Mr Mugabe's supporters campaigning for the run-off.
A civic group
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a civic group campaigning for a new constitution, also said the postponement of the run-off was illegal.
"It's unlawful under the Electoral Act. ... The Act automatically sets the run-off date, from the date of the first round. What they have done is ridiculous and fundamentally flawed," the group's leader, constitutional lawyer Dr Lovemore Madhuku, was quoted as saying.
"It's political mischief and it's very sad that the ZEC is allowing itself to be used to ambush the opposition," he added.
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The run-off was initially expected to be held by May 24.
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