Zimbabwe Court Begins Hearing Opposition Petition

A Zimbabwean court Tuesday began hearing an opposition petition demanding an immediate release of presidential election results after ruling in favor of the petitioners that their case was indeed urgent, APA learnt here Tuesday.

The Movement for Democratic Change is challenging the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to announce the long awaited results after the electoral body withheld the outcome of the hotly contested presidential election. ZEC had opposed the MDC application, arguing that the matter should not be heard in court urgently.

High Court judge Tendai Uchena on Tuesday ruled in favor of the opposition and immediately started hearing arguments from the two sides’ lawyers.

In its court petition, the MDC claimed that official results of the presidential elections as pasted outside the polling stations showed that its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had beaten President Robert Mugabe by more that 100,000 votes.

The opposition court application comes against the backdrop of a deepening political crisis after Mugabe’s ZANU PF party announced Saturday its intention to force a recount of ballots in the presidential poll and 16 House of Assembly constituencies won by the MDC.

The opposition has accused the ZANU PF of trying to rig the elections by delaying the announcement of the results.

Source African Press Agency

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