Court challenge to Mugabe election win - Zimbabwe

[dArKeR]

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is due in court on Monday to challenge President Robert Mugabe's contested victory in last year's polls. Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), wants a rerun of the election that returned his 79-year-old rival to office.

Mugabe was declared the winner by a majority of some 400 000 votes. But the MDC leader, a former trade unionist, filed court papers challenging Mugabe's victory in April last year, a month after the election.

He claims that Mugabe, who has been in power for 23 years, violated electoral laws and used dirty tactics to win himself a fifth term in office.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22970&t=1

[dArKeR]

1. Zimbabwe poll 'stifled at birth'

The High Court in Zimbabwe on Monday began hearing a challenge by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai against President Robert Mugabe's victory in last year's disputed polls.

The hearing comes 18 months after Tsvangirai first filed a petition against the election, claiming Mugabe violated electoral laws and used dirty tactics to win himself a fifth term in office.

Tsvangirai's South African lawyer, Jeremy Guantlett, told Justice Ben Hlatshwayo on Monday that the disputed poll was conducted in an environment that was "blatantly unconstitutional".

The start of the long-awaited petition attracted a large audience that crammed into a courtroom in the Harare High court. As Tsvangirai, his wife and other senior officials from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) looked on, the MDC lawyer told the judge that a state-appointed body tasked with supervising the election was not properly constituted because it had only four members instead of five.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22998&t=1