OPPOSITION Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says it is now pinning its hopes on the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African Union (AU)’s intervention following its decision not to challenge President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory at the courts.
The CCC rejected the election results after Mnangagwa was
declared winner of the presidential election held on August 23 and 24.
Party deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba told the NewsDay
yesterday that the party had exhausted all domestic remedies to resolve the
electoral dispute, hence the resolution to turn to Sadc.
“The crisis which Zimbabwe is facing is not a legal one,”
Siziba said.
“We have a political crisis and we are very optimistic that
Sadc and AU will help Zimbabwe resolve it. We have exhausted all the domestic
remedies that could address the challenges,” said Siziba.
He said the CCC had engaged Zec on several occasions about
various irregularities, but did not get any favourable response.
“We even wrote to Mnangagwa as the head of State, we wanted
to engage him over various electoral irregularities, but we did not get any
response.
“At the court we filed several cases, we have lost most of
them, we petitioned the courts over various issues around the voters roll,
distribution and printing of ballot papers, their printing and storage; we
petitioned the courts against FAZ (Zanu PF affiliate Forever Associates of
Zimbabwe), but we did not get any favourable response,” he said.
The CCC officials are currently on a diplomatic offensive
seeking support of African leaders and Sadc to push for a fresh poll.
“Zimbabwe is currently battling a vicious cycle of
electoral theft and disputes. What we want now is a permanent solution to
resolve the crisis. We do not want a temporary solution because we are going to
have a repeat of what we had previously. So the issues here are beyond the
courts.
“As it is, we have no other solution except the
intervention of Sadc and the AU. All the Chapter 12 institutions, the Human
Right Commission, the National Peace and Reconciliation are aware of our
issues. We even took our alternative Electoral Amendment Bill to Parliament and
we also raised these issues in our pre-electoral pact document,” Siziba added.
Political analysts said the CCC was unlikely to get a
favourable ruling at the courts if it had filed a case against Mnangagwa’s
victory.
“It is now common cause that the role of the Judiciary in
the electoral contestations has not been fair to Zanu PF opponents,” Zimbabwe
Democracy Institute director Pedzisai Ruhanya said.
“In the pre-electoral period, apart from the case of the
Bulawayo 12 MPs, all other cases have not been favourable to opponents. Going
to the courts was going to give the opposition supporters who know that the
elections were not run properly, false hope and it dampens their spirits.”
He added: “The struggle for Zimbabwe to be liberated was
not addressed in the courts, neither was apartheid. Political problems require
political solutions.”
Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said the lack of
confidence in the Judiciary could have forced CCC not to petition against
Mnangagwa’s victory.
“The Judiciary and most relevant institutions are part of
Zanu PF, so it is a waste of resources and time to file a case against them.
Any attempt to expose Zanu PF illegitimacy was actually granting them
legitimacy,” opined Masunungure.
“So what CCC did here was to dismiss the whole government
system including the Judiciary, by not filing a case. CCC has deepened the
sense of illegitimacy and projected it to the local public and the
international community.” Newsday
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