DOSSIER ON BALLOT THEFT SOON TO BE READY

MDC-T prepares to submit dossier on ZANU PF ballot theft

By Nomalanga Moyo
SW Radio Africa
5 August 2013

MDC-T coalition partner and Mavambo leader Simba Makoni says measures are being taken to expose the unprecedented ballot theft which saw ZANU PF winning the Wednesday election.

Makoni, who contested the just-ended poll on a MDC-T ticket, said they were rejecting ZANU PF’s victory as an outcome of a rigged process, and calling for fresh elections.

Last Thursday MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai declared the election ‘null and void, and described it as a ‘farce’ which did not reflect the will of the people.

Makoni told SW Radio Africa Monday that a dossier was being compiled by the MDC-T in a bid to reveal how ZANU PF and its leader Robert Mugabe rigged the election.

He said Zimbabweans should expect other measures aimed at challenging the electoral fraud to be put in motion before “the inauguration of the so-called winner”.

The MDC-T has until Saturday – as required by the law – to take their case to the Constitutional Court, in what is set to be an uphill task. The country’s courts are largely staffed by Mugabe apologists who have consistently ruled in his favour on electoral matters brought before the courts since 2000. ZANU PF’s Patrick Chinamasa has already challenged the MDC-T to seek recourse through the courts.

Makoni said: “We already have a strong body of evidence to support our case. Most of it is elaborating on the irregularities, which have also been variously expressed by the African Union, SADC, and also by local observers.

“There were irregularities around the voters’ roll, the voting slips, the assisted voters, as well as the turned away voters. All these build up a strong body of evidence that renders the outcome not credible,” he said.

Makoni would not go into great detail about the measures being taken to expose ZANU PF’s rigging mechanisms, but he indicated that the MDC-T will soon be seeking an independent audit of all the election material as part of that process.

Last week Tsvangirai said the dossier of “all irregularities and all the illegalities” will also be submitted to SADC, in the hope that the regional body will intervene.

But observers say this may be another tough call as SADC, together with the AU and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa have endorsed the result and urged the MDC-T to accept it, despite noting the irregularities.

Makoni denied that the MDC-T may have got complacent ‘and slept on the job’ as implied in a Monday NewsDay editorial piece.

“It is not true that we took our eyes off the ball, we continued to raise these irregularities even to SADC. In his final rally, Tsvangirai raised concern about the integrity and credibility of this process, and even called on the Electoral Commission to resign.

“The scale of these irregularities keeps unravelling, and we now know more than we did before polling day,” Makoni added.

One electoral commissioner, Mkhululi Nyathi, has already resigned in protest at the unprofessional manner in which the electoral process was conducted.

Makoni said the commissioner’s resignation is an important part of the evidence that the MDC-T is compiling as they prepare to challenge the electoral fraud.

“We are going to give him (Zuma) and other leaders the detailed evidence of how the election was stolen and we hope they will use that to ensure Zimbabweans get the electoral justice they deserve.”

Once complete the MDC-T dossier is expected to include irregularities such as double voting, use of fake registration slips, the busing in of voters from outside constituencies, the inclusion of ghost voters on the roll, the failure by ZEC to provide political parties with an auditable electronic voters’ roll, as well as the involvement of shadowy Israeli entity Nikuv, among many other issues.

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