HARARE - Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) leader Simba Makoni has called for a fresh election in the wake of the disputed re-election of President Robert Mugabe in the just-ended harmonised polls. In a media briefing at the Media Centre in central Harare yesterday, Makoni, whose party entered into a coalition with outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC just before the July 31 elections, described the elections as peaceful but not free, fair, credible or legitimate. Makoni, who lost the Makoni Central parliamentary seat to Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa, said his party rejected the results of the election announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) saying they did not reflect the true expression of the free will of the people. Citing numerous irregularities that characterised special voting for the country’s security forces, printing of ballot papers, establishment of polling stations, the unusually high number of assisted voters and the unavailability of an electronic version of the voters’ roll to candidates, Makoni said the poll was flawed. He said he was working with Tsvangirai and other national organisations in advocacy activities to mobilise Zimbabweans as well as regional and continental authorities to have the elections nullified. The former Zanu PF politburo member said Zec acknowledged the irregularities and that an additional 65 polling stations were published on election day in contravention of Section 51 of the Electoral Act which stipulates that they should be publicised three weeks before polling. “We simply add that the lack of convincing explanations reinforces the absence of integrity and credibility in the electoral process,” Makoni said. “In light of all the shortcomings and irregularities enumerated above, we reject the results announced by Zec as not free, fair, credible or legitimate. “The results do not reflect the free expression of the free will of the people of Zimbabwe and in searching for ways out of the crisis that has been exacerbated by the illegitimate elections of July 31, 2013. “We are working with leaders of other national organisations to establish national and regional consensus on the need for fresh elections, conducted under the conditions that guarantee the exercise of the free will of the sovereign people of Zimbabwe,” said Makoni. Tsvangirai has since dismissed Mugabe’s win as a “farce” calling it “fraudulent and stolen” and vowed to challenge the result in court as well as submitting a dossier of “all irregularities and all the illegalities” to Sadc. Makoni also echoed Tsvangirai’s sentiments, calling for an independent forensic audit of the electoral process, its outcomes, especially the voters’ roll and the election materials generated for the elections. The former Finance minister, who also once served as Sadc executive secretary, also demanded that the final electronic voters’ roll be made available to candidates as well as ensuring that all ballot boxes and polling station reports be secured. “Notwithstanding the chorus of public congratulations pouring in from around us, we trust that the essence of the preliminary reports by both Sadc and the AU elections observer missions have not fallen on deaf ears,” he said. “We implore and encourage the people of Zimbabwe not to lose faith and hope in their ability and capacity to liberate themselves from fear, from desperation, from despair and from destitution,” he said. Political parties wishing to challenge the validity of the results of the presidential election have up to tomorrow to lodge their applications with the Constitutional Court in accordance with section 93 of the Constitution which gives seven days after the announcement of the results as the period within which to do so. Meanwhile, the MDC led by Welshman Ncube says while it agrees that Mugabe rigged the election, going to the courts or approaching Sadc and the AU was an exercise in futility. “In as much as we agree that the mandate to rule that Mugabe is claiming is ill-gotten, seeking recourse at the Con-Court is akin to asking Mugabe to nullify his own victory,” party spokesperson Nhlahla Dube told the Daily News. “It is a futile exercise because it is the same court that brought us to where we are today in view of the Mawarire (Jealousy) case.” Dube said his party was “already in the trenches”, reorganising itself for the 2018 general elections.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 13:46:48 +0000