SECURITY AGENTS TO CONFISCATE MDC-T`S POLL FRAUD EVIDENCE!

Security agents in bid to confiscate MDC-T poll fraud evidence

The IDs of dead Zimbabweans used for registering in the most recent elections found by the MDC-T in Chegutu

By Nomalanga Moyo
SW Radio Africa
6 August 2013

The MDC-T says it has received information that state security agents are preparing to raid more than 100 MDC-T premises in a bid to thwart the party’s electoral fraud court challenge.

This was revealed by party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora, who also told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the process of “gathering evidence and documenting everything that led to the electoral fraud” was going well.

Mwonzora said: “But we now understand that state security agents have prepared more than 100 search warrants to target the offices and premises of senior MDC officials to destroy this evidence that we want to present before the courts.”

Mwonzora said they also feared that the agents will plant damning material in the homes of party officials, and use this as an excuse to start a campaign of reprisals.

Since Thursday, when the scale of electoral irregularities began to emerge, the MDC-T has been preparing a dossier which will form a crucial part of its court petition. Mwonzora said once made public, the details will be embarrassing to ZANU PF, hence the frantic moves to destroy this.

The MDC-T have until Saturday to raise their objections in court, and according to party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora their lawyers are working hard to take their case to ConCourt by Friday.

The MDC-T case will be built on what the party and its allies called a dossier on “all irregularities and all the illegalities” observed before, during and after the July 31^st election.

Mwonzora also said that his party will also be exploring diplomatic and political avenues as they search for a solution to the election dispute.

“In one of its recommendations SADC said it wanted evidence of fraud from us and we are compiling this so we can take it to them and that is why we are being targeted,” he added.

In its petition, the MDC-T will also challenge results from over 100 constituencies, in the hope that this will unmask the systematic and widespread rigging that characterised the just-ended process.

The ConCourt is required to rule within 14 days of the court application being made, which could delay President Robert Mugabe’s 7^th inauguration. Mugabe cannot be sworn in until the court has ruled on the MDC-T challenge.

In the meantime, judges at the country’s higher courts are said to be on their yearly month-long break until September 2^nd.

According to a Herald report Tuesday, only a few judges will be on hand to hear urgent cases at the ConCourt, Supreme Court, High Court and the Labour Court.

However a lawyer, who did not wish to be named, told SW Radio Africa that despite being on vacation the ConCourt judges will be eager to hear the MDC-T case and endorse Mugabe’s win once and for all.

“Just as they did following the Maputo Summit in June when SADC suggested an extension to the election date, the judges will find time to sit, rule in favour of Mugabe, and thus pave the way for his inauguration.”

The lawyer also said that he did not think that the solution to the poll dispute lies in the courts: “The MDC can challenge this outcome a thousand times but this won’t make any difference in a country whose court system has failed to be impartial.”

“The MDC application gives ZANU PF a perfect chance to have their victory endorsed by the highest court in the land. The ConCourt will see this as chance to dismiss the issue of irregularities as baseless and without proof,” the lawyer said.

But Mwonzora said his party would use all means to seek justice for the millions of Zimbabweans whose votes and hope had been snatched away by ZANU PF. “If our courts choose to act injudiciously, we cannot do much about that. As the MDC-T we will continue to use all constitutional means to seek redress,” he said.