A number of election observers have flagged the polls as
not credible and failing to meet local, regional and international guidelines
on holding free, fair and credible
elections.
The Sadc election observer mission issued a damning report,
attracting angry outbursts from Harare, the ruling Zanu PF party and its
supporters.
Addressing a Press conference in Harare yesterday, CCC
deputy spokesperson Gift “Ostallos” Siziba said the party was pursuing all
avenues including court processes to overturn the results.
“The only resolution and way forward articulated by CCC for
the avoidance of doubt and confusion is that Zimbabwe needs a fresh and broad
and proper election to exit the current crisis,” Siziba said.
“Our answer to all Zimbabweans and Africans at large is
that the solution lies in calling upon African brothers and those in the
region, particularly Sadc and the African Union to help us to facilitate and
more importantly to guarantee a process that will lead our return to legitimacy
in the shortest period of time.”
Zanu PF has, however, dismissed claims that the polls were
not free and fair. The party says it is preparing for Mnangagwa’s inauguration.
Siziba, however, said Zec failed the credibility and
transparency test.
“The course that we are going to take is a collective
course that does not include [only] the CCC but includes every player that was
affected,” he said about challenging the election outcome in the courts.
“The CCC rejects the election in total, the solution from
this crisis is a process that is scaffolded and guaranteed by Sadc and the AU.”
On Monday, US State Department’s Matthew Miller said the
election was not free and fair citing an uneven playing field tilted against
the opposition.
Miller also condemned the arrest of election observers from
the Zimbabwe Election Support Network and the Election Resource Centre, saying
this was an attempt to prevent them from exposing rigging.
“We call on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to make
the disaggregated polling station results publicly available to increase
confidence in the result tabulation process,” Miller said.
“These arrests prevented efforts to independently verify
Zec’s announced results, a fundamental component of democratic processes in the
region and around the world.”
Miller said Washington was engaging Sadc over the Harare
question.
“The US is engaging regional leaders to share our concerns,
including what this means for the international community’s nascent efforts to
re-engage the Zimbabwean government.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is one of the Sadc
leaders who have congratulated Mnangagwa for his controversial re-election.
Yesterday, a South African observer delegation led by
Khazamula Lawrence Chabane, met Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert
Mpofu, at the party offices and gave the polls a clean bill of health.
In his remarks, Chabane said: “We thought it was necessary
to come and share some lessons we learnt as we were observing, our view is that
elections went well, they were peaceful.”
Chamisa has kept Mnangagwa and Zanu PF guessing after
pictures of a purported Constitutional Court application challenging the
results emerged on social media.
Speculation has been rife that Chamisa will approach the
court challenging the election results.
CCC secretary for legal affairs, Innocent Gonese, could
neither confirm nor deny that Chamisa intended to file a court challenge.
Sources close to the judicial system said a high-level
meeting had been held by the Judicial Service Commission following the leaking
of the purported petition.
With the election results having been announced at midnight
on Saturday, the clock is ticking and all eyes are on whether the opposition
party will file its application within the stipulated period.
Chief registrar of the Constitutional Court Anita Tshuma
could not be reached for comment. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment