High Court postpones decision on presidential results again

By Lance Guma
07 April 2008

On Monday the High Court postponed a decision on whether the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should be forced into releasing presidential election results, until Tuesday. The good news for the opposition is that Justice Tendai Uchena ruled the court did have jurisdiction to rule on the matter, although ZEC had argued the court had no authority over them. Nine days after a landmark election that saw the MDC hand Zanu PF it’s first electoral defeat in 28 years, the presidential results have still not been announced. New information leaked by ZEC officials alleges that Tsvangirai won the presidential vote by 57,8 percent, and that Mugabe had demanded the reversal of this outcome, to ensure a second round of voting.

A crackdown on ZEC officials has already been launched with allegations that senior members at the command and collation centre at the Sheraton Hotel are under virtual house arrest. Members of the CIO are closely monitoring their movements. In Masvingo a policeman was arrested after questioning why election officials had been recounting votes on election day. They had recounted four times, after all attempts were yielding a Tsvangirai victory. Constable Admire Makaya has been locked up for almost a week in cells at a rural police camp in Masvingo. Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said Makaya; ‘conducted himself in a manner that contravened the Police Act,’ but sources say Makaya had simply queried the improper handling of votes meant for Tsvangirai.

A Sunday Mail report at the weekend revealed that several ZEC officials were arrested in the Midlands area, following alleged anomalies in the vote count. Commentators say Zanu PF is desperate to overturn a crushing parliamentary defeat and the arrests are part of a bid to hunt for scapegoats to use in a legal bid to win 16 constituencies lost by narrow margins. Legal experts however say an appeal contesting a result has to be lodged within 48 hours of its announcement, something Zanu PF did not do. Zanu PF has gone on to request ZEC to recount and audit all its electoral material and says on the basis of the so-called errors, the commission should defer announcement of the presidential results.

Meanwhile as the search for solutions continued, George Town University in the United States on Monday played host to a discussion forum on ‘Prospects for Transition in Zimbabwe.’ The meeting was addressed by former Industry and Trade Minister Dr Nkosana Moyo, Voice of America journalist Ray Choto and Dr Calisto Madawo, a former Director for Africa with the World Bank. Political analyst Philip Pasirayi attended the meeting and told Newsreel that the consensus was that in the event of a run-off all democratic forces should rally around Tsvangirai. Pasirayi however said the MDC should abandon the legal route and mobilize its structures for civil disobedience to resist Mugabe’s continued rule. He said the party had tried the democratic route many times and this was not yielding any results.

.