The international community has cast doubt on Zimbabwe's future after Robert Mugabe's re-election. Source: AAP
ZIMBABWE'S defeated presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is preparing to mount a legal and political challenge against the "sham" election that looks set to extend Robert Mugabe's 33-year rule.
Tsvangirai's allies have announced they will launch a constitutional court challenge against the results of Wednesday's election, which handed Mugabe a thumping 61 per cent of the vote.
"Our lawyers are very busy at work. We will be lodging the presidential challenge before Friday," Douglas Mwonzora, spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said on Monday.
The case could delay 89-year-old Mugabe's inauguration for another five-year term.
Once the complaint is lodged, the country's top court has 14 days to reach a decision.
Western nations, including former colonial ruler Britain, voiced serious doubts about the election while the regional SADC bloc said it was "free and peaceful", but stopped short of describing it as fair.
But MDC insiders acknowledge that finding a smoking gun for electoral fraud and navigating the notoriously polarised court system with be a fiendishly difficult.
The ruling ZANU-PF has welcomed the prospect of a court challenge over the vote - the first since bloody 2008 elections led to the formation of an uneasy power-sharing pact between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
"What they are doing is a good thing, it's a wise road to take," ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said, expressing confidence the challenge will fail.
Constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku said that given the 61-34 per cent vote split against Tsvangirai, his chances "are non-existent, completely non-existent".
"It's not a margin that normally gets challenged in court."
It is the third time Tsvangirai, a 61-year-old former union leader, has tried and failed to unseat Mugabe.
Mwonzora said the MDC was preparing a "dossier of all the rigging that took place and we will put it in the public domain to show the people how the election was stolen."
The MDC has called for post-election an emergency summit of the regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC) after the group gave the vote a thumbs-up, but deferred on calling the election "fair".
South African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday extended his "profound congratulations" to Mugabe on his re-election after a "successful" vote while his Namibian counterpart Hifikepunye Pohamba also welcomed the vote.
The MDC's Mwonzora - who himself lost his seat - expressed regret at the verdict of Zimbabwe's neighbours.
"We discovered that the SADC and the African Union equate absence of bloodshed in elections to free and fair elections, which is an incorrect way of looking at things."
The MDC had more support further afield, with the United States and European nations including Britain condemning the election, and Australia even calling for a re-run.
Mugabe and his allies still face a number of Western sanctions.
The Zimbabwe stock exchange plunged 11 per cent on Monday, the first day of trading since the results were issued, with foreign-owned stocks registering steep losses.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Zimbabwe oppn readies Mugabe challenge
Dengan url
http://jamdindingin.blogspot.com/2013/08/zimbabwe-oppn-readies-mugabe-challenge.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Zimbabwe oppn readies Mugabe challenge
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Zimbabwe oppn readies Mugabe challenge
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar