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Tsvangirai seeks to create democratic benchmarks for future use
11 Aug 2013 at 09:27hrs | Views
BESIDES trying to nullify the July 31 election, the petition filed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai seeks to create democratic benchmarks to be used in Zimbabwe's future elections.
Party sources said it was crucial that underhand methods that were used to deny MDC-T a victory at the polls were tabled before the Constitutional Court.
These methods would still undermine the holding of any free and fair elections in future if they were not addressed.
"It's not just about court victory that we are seeking. We are bringing before the highest court of the land anomalies that should be fixed before Zimbabwe holds any future elections," a senior party official disclosed yesterday.
"There is no other platform that is more prominent for us to inform the world, including Sadc which has endorsed the polls, how Zanu PF rigged its way to victory," he said.
Another official who is conversant with the MDC-T's strategy said they were many Zimbabweans who were in a state of mourning and wanted to formally express their disappointment.
"If we had chosen to remain quiet fearing our court challenge would not be successful, we would have missed a golden chance to express, as a matter of record, the concerns of millions of Zimbabweans who yearn for free and fair elections," said the official.
"These people felt robbed by the outcome of the election. They will derive satisfaction if our lawyers can articulate in the Constitutional Court how Zanu PF manipulated the election. Our hope is that going forward these matters would be taken seriously, and would set benchmarks for the 2018 elections."
Party sources said it was crucial that underhand methods that were used to deny MDC-T a victory at the polls were tabled before the Constitutional Court.
These methods would still undermine the holding of any free and fair elections in future if they were not addressed.
"It's not just about court victory that we are seeking. We are bringing before the highest court of the land anomalies that should be fixed before Zimbabwe holds any future elections," a senior party official disclosed yesterday.
Another official who is conversant with the MDC-T's strategy said they were many Zimbabweans who were in a state of mourning and wanted to formally express their disappointment.
"If we had chosen to remain quiet fearing our court challenge would not be successful, we would have missed a golden chance to express, as a matter of record, the concerns of millions of Zimbabweans who yearn for free and fair elections," said the official.
"These people felt robbed by the outcome of the election. They will derive satisfaction if our lawyers can articulate in the Constitutional Court how Zanu PF manipulated the election. Our hope is that going forward these matters would be taken seriously, and would set benchmarks for the 2018 elections."
Source - standard
