SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
Over 100 losing parliamentary candidates for the MDC-T will file petitions challenging electoral results in their constituencies, a senior party member said on Monday.
Nelson Chamisa, the party’s national organizing secretary confirmed that some of their candidates have already filed their petitions while others will be following suit in due course.
One of the candidates, Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda told SW Radio Africa that there are a lot of people from the Vungu constituency who are prepared to ‘spill the beans’ in court.
“We have people from the constituency who are prepared to testify in court and explain exactly how they were used by ZANU PF to rig the election,” Sibanda said.
He added: “We know the odds are stacked against us but we want to prove a point and show the world that this election was rigged and that poor peasants were used as part of the election rigging machinery by ZANU PF.”
Political commentator Itai Dzamara said it is wise for the MDC-T to go ahead with the court challenges despite their leader withdrawing his Presidential result challenge at the Constitutional Court.
“I think morally it is correct for the MDC-T to challenge the fraudulent results otherwise if they don’t ZANU PF will simply declare that they won freely and fairly,” Dzamara said.
He said it is likely the candidates will face the same hurdles as the outgoing premier Morgan Tsvangirai, who has failed to access the voting materials.
Since the election on July 31st the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Registrar-General’s office have flatly refused to avail any documents for the MDC-T to audit and inspect.