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Sydney Kawadza Senior Reporter
Non-governmental organisations linked to the MDC-T have sponsored more than 20 local activists to stage a demonstration on the sidelines of the Sadc Summit starting today in Lilongwe, Malawi.The demonstrations are part of MDC-T’s futile attempts to discredit and possibly reverse the results of the July 31 harmonised elections where President Mugabe thrashed Mr Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential elections.
President Mugabe romped to victory with a 61,09 percent margin to the out-going Prime Minister’s 33,94 percent of the valid vote while Zanu-PF clinched 161 seats out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies. The Zanu-PF win gave the revolutionary party a commanding 76 percent dominance in Parliament, more than two thirds majority.
The election was endorsed by Sadc, the African Union, Comesa, ACP countries as well as 40 other countries across the world as free, fair and credible. However, Mr Tsvangirai is challenging the poll outcome through the Constitutional Court claiming that the elections were rigged in favour of Zanu-PF.
In a bid to pressure the regional bloc to reverse the election results, the NGOs that have been associated with the MDC’s regime change agenda and sponsored by some Western countries have besieged the Malawian capital ahead of the summit today. 0According to sources in Lilongwe, the NGOs yesterday met their Malawian counterparts ahead of today’s planned demonstrations to lobby the Sadc Heads of State and Government to reverse the outcome.
The Herald is in possession of a list of “delegates” drawn from Harare, Gokwe, Checheche, Mutare, Chitungwiza and Bulawayo.
Among the group of NGOs that sent emissaries to Malawi are Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, ZimRights, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Coalition for Debt and Development, Seattinni and Zimbabwe Youth Forum.
While most of the demonstrators left Harare on Thursday, it is, however, believed that several others including members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise had left the country for Malawi earlier in the week.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition spokesperson Mr Thabani Nyoni yesterday confirmed that they had a meeting where the Zimbabwe situation was discussed.
The meeting was ostensibly held under the banner of the Sadc People’s Summit.
“There is really nothing unusual about the meeting because every time there is a Sadc Summit we meet with other organisations to discuss a list of issues that are of concern in our different countries.”
Mr Nyoni said the meeting had also discussed issues to do with the outcome of the election in Zimbabwe. A source who attended the meeting yesterday confirmed that the meeting was held ahead of a demonstration today to push for the Sadc leaders to consider reversing the election results in Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter