ZIMBABWE:ZIMBABWE'S HIGH court dashed hopes of a speedy resolution to the country's electoral crisis yesterday when it refused to order the immediate release of the presidential election result.
In a major blow to the main opposition party, high court judge Tendai Uchena rejected the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) application to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release the results of the March 29th presidential poll.
In his ruling, Mr Uchena said he accepted the electoral commission's explanation that it was investigating anomalies in some of the voting districts, calling it "legally valid". "It can therefore justify the delay," he said.
The outcome has further increased tensions among a population called out on an indefinite nationwide strike from today by the MDC over the commission's refusal to release the result.
Speaking to local reporters after the court's decision, MDC lawyer Andrew Makoni described the ruling as "a very sad day in Zimbabwe". He added that the court "has given the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission a blank check. We don't know when the ZEC will be ready with results. We don't know what specific time would be reasonable in the eyes of the court."
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai maintains that he has won the presidential race by an absolute majority, and that the commission is delaying the release of the official result to give his rival, president Robert Mugabe, time to either rig the result or prepare for a second-round head-to-head.
The electoral commission initially blamed technical difficulties for the delay, but most recently it has said the process of verifying votes counted at individual polling stations is the reason for the hold-up. However, many observers are sceptical of this excuse, as the verifying process for parliamentary and local elections held on the same day as the presidential vote was completed within a week of the poll.
Fears over the ability of the state-appointed electoral commission to produce an acceptable official result have grown recently with the news that the commission's office has been closed down and five of its members arrested.
The commission's vote processing is continuing at a separate location, according to the government, but the opposition and local rights groups say this is a lie.
"The verification, from what we understand, has not even begun," Irene Petras, head of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told Johannesburg reporters yesterday. She added that, if another counting centre existed, no one bar the ruling party had been in it.
The government welcomed the court's decision, saying it was not surprised it had dismissed the application. "We knew from the outset that application by the MDC had no merit," said justice minister Patrick Chinamasa.
Following the ruling, the MDC confirmed that it was going ahead with a call for nationwide general strike that is to continue until the presidential result is released.
"We are calling on the public to speak against ZEC for failing to release the results," the party's vice-president, Thokozani Khupe, said. "We have called for a mass stay-in, starting tomorrow, until the results are released."
On Sunday, an emergency meeting of Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community ended with a call for the electoral commission to release the results "expeditiously".
Meanwhile, an MDC election agent has been stabbed to death by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF, according to the MDC.
Tapiwa Mubwanda, who served as an electoral agent in the northwestern constituency of Hurungwe West, was stabbed on Saturday night, according to the party.