(Last Updated on August 5, 2013 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – Opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he wants a forensic audit of the election.
Zimbabwe’s election took place on Wednesday and it was revealed on Saturday Robert Mugabe’s party won the vote by winning a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Tsvangirai’s party has raised concerns about the high number of voters prevented from registering to vote and then from actually voting on Election Day.
The party is also concerned about the reportedly large number of voters being ‘helped’ to vote in the rural areas despite Zimbabwe’s record literacy rates.
Tsvangirai told diplomats and the media that he would not be part of another unity government as happened after the last disputed polls in 2008.
As she announced presidential results on Saturday Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission Chief had said she’d wanted a perfect poll.
But Tsvangirai doesn’t believe this is what he got.
ZIMBABWEANS DEVASTATED
The MDC leader says Zimbabwe is in national mourning and all hopes have been dashed by the victory of ZANU-PF.
Mugabe has until Wednesday to make his case to the Electoral Commission. Meanwhile he will give a dossier of irregularities to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) whose observer mission to the election called it peaceful and free but stopped short of calling it fair.
The election has been given the thumbs down by countries that imposed sanctions on Robert Mugabe for stealing polls in 2002 and 2009.
Countries like the EU, the UK and Australia joined several others around the world in rejecting the outcome of the poll.
Australia is calling for the election to be re-run while US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on the SADC and the African Union (AU) to address the concerns over Zimbabwe’s disputed election saying the election was not credible and ‘deeply flawed’.
CONGRATS FROM ZUMA
President Jacob Zuma has congratulated his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, on his re-election.
In a statement, Zuma urges all parties to accept the outcome of the election as observers had reported it to be an expression of the will of the people.
He commended Zimbabwe for conducting a peaceful election.
This is Mugabe’s seventh consecutive election victory as President of Zimbabwe and means he will stay in power until he is 94 years-old.
(Edited by Tamsin Wort)