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Harare — MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday said his party will not recognise the outcome of Wednesday’s harmonised election, citing irregularities in the voting process.His threats come before the official announcement of the final election results by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), which has endorsed the crucial election as free and fair.
Tsvangirai has been widely tipped to lose the election to his rival, President Mugabe by many independent analysts and surveys. Addressing a Press conference at his party’s headquarters at Harvest House in Harare, Tsvangirai claimed that the MDC-T had evidence of widespread vote rigging and voter intimidation orchestrated by Zanu-PF.
He did not, however, provide evidence to substantiate his party’s claims. He also claimed that the election did not meet Sadc and African Union (AU) guidelines on the conduct of elections. This is in sharp contrast to preliminary assessments from the AU and other election observer missions which have said Zimbabwe’s election was held in a free and fair manner.
“I am sure most of you are aware of the developments around elections and what is emerging throughout the country. Our conclusion has been that this has been a huge farce. The credibility of this election has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affect the legitimacy of its outcome.
“In other words, it is our view that this election is null and void and does not meet the Sadc and AU international guidelines for a credible free and fair election,” he said.
The election ends five years of an acrimonious three-party coalition government which, though credited for stabilising the economy, failed to deliver anything else to the electorate due to bickering and divergent ideologies.
Zanu PF, which has been in power for 33 years, campaigned on the basis of its pro-poor policies of land reform, and mass economic empowerment through exploitation of Zimbabwe’s vast mineral wealth by Zimbabweans themselves with foreigners as minority shareholders. The policies are hugely popular in the country, and are already being implemented.
On the other hand, the MDC-T premised its campaign on job creation from expected foreign investment from Western countries.
In the election, Zimbabweans appeared largely skeptical of the party’s promised Western “generosity”, and swayed more by Zanu PF’s “tangible” campaign programmes. Zec began announcing the results of the poll last night and Zanu-PF was leading. — New Ziana
Online Reporter