ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government has set up an electoral court to handle legal matters arising from a general election due next month, the official Herald newspaper reported yesterday.
In a sign of rising tension ahead of the poll, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said a group of soldiers attacked a group of its members on their way back to the capital from the party's election campaign launch at the weekend.
The government has made reforms it says will ensure a free poll on March 31th, but the MDC says the rules are still skewed in favour of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, and that state security agents have sought to hamper its campaign activities.
Zimbabwe's top judge, Godfrey Chidyausiku, appointed High Court judges Tendayi Uchena, Maphios Cheda and Nicholas Ndou to the new court to hear election petitions, the Herald said.
"The Electoral Court is now in place and the administrative machinery is also in place. We are now ready to deal with election matters," the paper quoted the court's registrar as saying. Court officials were not immediately reachable for comment.
The MDC, running in this year's polls under protest, has complained that courts dragged their feet over most legal challenges it launched against ZANU-PF victories in parliamentary elections in 2000 and a presidential vote two years later. The ruling party insists it won fairly. The MDC said yesterday soldiers had attacked party officials on their way back to Harare at the weekend after attending the party's campaign launch in the southern town of Masvingo.- (Reuters)