MDC-T drops Mugabe election challenge

Zimbabwe’s MDC party has dropped its legal challenge to President Robert Mugabe’s re-election, saying it could not get a fair hearing. It had filed a separate case seeking access to full details of the results from the electoral commission.

But the High Court has delayed judgement in the case. The MDC says that without information such as the number of people not on the voters’ roll who voted, it cannot prove that the elections were fraudulent. The arguments in the MDC’s legal challenge were due to begin on Saturday.

But MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said that, without the extra information, the challenge “was going to be a mockery of justice”, reports the AFP news agency.

The withdrawal of its challenge paves the way for Mr Mugabe, 89, to be inaugurated for another five-year term. He has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

Mr Mugabe won with 61% of the presidential vote against 34% for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who called the 31 July election a “huge farce”. The MDC has said that more than a million voters were prevented from casting their ballots – mainly in urban areas considered to be its strongholds.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which had 7,000 observers around the country, has backed up these allegations. But the African Union has said that any irregularities were not enough to overturn the margin of victory.

Allies of President Mugabe have dismissed the allegations and accused Mr Tsvangirai of being a bad loser. Regional heavyweight, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has urged the MDC leader to accept defeat. BBC