HARARE, April 7: Zimbabwe’s High Court on Monday again postponed a decision on an opposition bid to force out the result of a presidential election which President Robert Mugabe wants to delay.
The High Court rejected a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission argument that it had no jurisdiction over the release of results but postponed until Tuesday a ruling on whether it should consider the case urgently.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has been trying since Saturday to accelerate release of the results for the March 29 vote, saying its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won and should be declared president, ending Mugabe’s 28-year rule.
Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe is “on a razor’s edge” because of the election impasse and accuses Mugabe of planning violence to overturn results of both presidential and parliamentary votes.
The ruling ZANU-PF party wants a delay pending a recount, as part of its strategy to extend Mugabe’s uninterrupted rule since independence from Britain. Long legal processes seem to be helping the ZANU-PF plan.
MDC lawyer Alec Muchadehama told reporters after the High Court hearing: “I think Zimbabwe Electoral Commission just wants to delay this whole thing.”
The opposition and Western powers blame Mugabe for reducing his once prosperous country to misery by economic mismanagement.
Zimbabwe has the world’s worst rate of hyper-inflation, making its currency virtually worthless and turning millions of people into economic refugees.
The High Court had adjourned the case on Sunday to decide on a ZEC argument that it did not have jurisdiction.
The opposition says Mugabe is trying to buy time to organise a fight-back after his first electoral defeat, when ZANU-PF lost the parallel parliamentary election.
As the court case continued, Tsvangirai went to regional power South Africa for private talks on the crisis.
“Major powers here, such as South Africa, the US and Britain, must act to remove the white-knuckle grip of Mugabe’s suicidal reign and oblige him and his minions to retire,”
Tsvangirai wrote in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
But South African President Thabo Mbeki, who failed last year to mediate an end to the Zimbabwe crisis, said at the weekend the post-election situation there was “manageable” and it was not the time for international intervention.
ZANU-PF and independent monitors’ projections show Tsvangirai has won the presidential election but will be forced into a runoff vote after failing to win an absolute majority.
STRATEGY: ZANU-PF’s strategy to stay in power includes legal challenges to some of the parliamentary results and the mobilisation of pro-government militias before any runoff.
The re-emergence of liberation war veterans, often used as political shock troops by Mugabe, has increased concern that he plans a violent response to his election setback.
On Saturday, Tsvangirai accused the 84-year-old former guerrilla leader of “preparing a war on the people”.
The veterans led a wave of violent occupations of white farms as part of a government land redistribution programme.
Critics say the land reforms, in which inexperienced farmers and Mugabe cronies took over many farms, is at the centre of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. It now suffers inflation of over 100,000 per cent and chronic shortages of food and fuel.
Mugabe blames the economic collapse on Western sanctions.
Responding to reports of fresh farm invasions by the war veterans, Commercial Farmers’ Union chief executive Hendrick Olivier said police had dispersed groups of people ordering farmers to vacate their farms in Masvingo province. “We have also received similar reports from two farms in Centenary. Reports have also been made to the police and we hope they will act as swiftly as they did in Masvingo,” he said.
Agricultural officials say a majority of Zimbabwe’s 4,500 or so white commercial farmers have been forced off their properties since 2000 when Mugabe launched his land reforms.
The state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying Zimbabweans should protect their land from former colonisers.
It said he made the plea at the funeral of a relative.
Electoral rules say a runoff must be held three weeks after the release of results, meaning the longer the delay the more time Mugabe has to regroup.
Mugabe’s government is widely accused in the West of stealing previous presidential and parliamentary elections, and his removal is regarded by Washington and London as necessary to rebuilding Zimbabwe’s shattered economy.—Reuters
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