Zimbabwe opposition to challenge poll result in court

HARARE: Zimbabwe’s MDC opposition party on Wednesday vowed to overturn in court President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s narrow election victory, alleging that he won the historic vote via “mammoth theft and fraud”.

The country’s first election since Robert Mugabe’s ousting has been marred by rigging allegations, the army opening fire on opposition demonstrators killing six people, and accusations of a security crackdown on opposition supporters.

The MDC has until Friday to lodge its suit after Mnangagwa — formerly a close ally of Mugabe — won 50.8 per cent in last week’s vote, just scraping in above the 50 per cent run-off threshold.

“Those results represent a total negation of the will of the people,” MDC lawyer Thabani Mpofu told reporters in Harare. “The election results made by ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) will be challenged.” Under Zimbabwean law, the deadline for filing the challenge is Friday. The Constitutional Court must rule on the petition within 14 days, delaying Mnangagwa’s planned inauguration.

“ZEC’S figures in our view grossly mathematically fail to tally,” said Mpofu. “We are convinced once this has been placed before a court, there will only be one outcome.”

He gave no details about any evidence of alleged fraud, promising instead to reveal “a secret weapon” in court. Alexander Noyes, an analyst at the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the legal case had little chance of success due to the courts’“long-held bias” towards the ruling ZANU-PF party.

Noyes added the MDC would likely cite a EU observer report that concluded the election was held on an “un-level playing field.”

Mnangagwa has vowed to protect rights in the “new Zimbabwe” after Mugabe’s 37-year repressive rule but the MDC and civil action groups allege that authorities have unleashed a brutal postelection crackdown on opponents.

Senior MDC figure Tendai Biti was arrested as he tried to flee to neighbouring Zambia to seek asylum early Wednesday, his lawyer said, allegedly on charges of inciting violence over the disputed vote count. Biti last week claimed victory for the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) party, triggering celebrations the day before soldiers opened fire on MDC protesters and before the final presidential results were announced.

“He was arrested at the Zambian border,” Biti’s lawyer Nqobizitha Mlilo said adding by text message that he was trying to seek asylum.

The state-run Chronicle newspaper said on Tuesday that Biti was among nine suspects sought for inciting the MDC protests at which the army opened fire. Biti is a senior figure in the MDC alliance and was a respected finance minister in Zimbabwe’s troubled 2009-13 power-sharing government. — AFP