Zimbabwe High Court Delivers Blow to Western-backed Opposition Forces

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Zimbabwe court refuses to release election results

By Celia W. Dugger and Graham Bowley
Monday, April 14, 2008

JOHANNESBURG--The Zimbabwean political opposition suffered a rebuff
Monday when the High Court dismissed its demand that the results of the
presidential election last month be made public immediately.

The court accepted the election commission's explanation that it was
investigating anomalies in some of the voting districts, according to an
Associated Press report. "It can therefore justify the delay," the court
ruled.

A spokesman for the main opposition party, Nqobizitha Mlilo, confirmed
that the court had dismissed its demand, and said the party, the
Movement for Democratic Change, was still considering how it would react
to the ruling. The opposition had already threatened to hold a general
strike this week. Later Monday, news agencies in Harare, the capital,
quoted opposition officials as saying they would go ahead with the
strike.

Zimbabwean election officials have yet to announce the winner of the
presidential election, which was held March 29, causing widespread
suspicions that President Robert Mugabe, who has been president since
the country won its independence 28 years ago, is refusing to accept
defeat.

On Tuesday, the court is to consider a separate petition from Mugabe's
party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, which is
seeking a recount of the vote in 23 parliamentary constituencies.

Official results in the election gave the opposition party more than
half of the 210 seats in Parliament, but a recount of those districts
could swing the majority back into the governing party's column.

The ruling by the court Monday is a setback for opposition officials in
their battle to unseat Mugabe. On Sunday, they savored support they had
gained from southern African political leaders. The leaders of a
14-country bloc gathered in Lusaka, Zambia, for 12 consecutive hours of
talks on the political impasse in Zimbabwe, ending at 5 a.m. Sunday.

The bloc, the Southern African Development Community, announced that it
was urging the Zimbabwean government to let representatives of the
opposition be present when vote tabulations were verified and to ensure
that a presidential runoff, if needed, would be held "in a secure
environment."

Election monitors and opposition candidates have said they were denied
access to the vote-counting command center. They have also charged that
Mugabe's party has organized youth militias and veterans of the
independence struggle to attack opposition supporters.

On Friday, the ruling party tightened its control over the beleaguered
country by banning political rallies, continuing its crackdown on the
opposition and arresting the lawyer of its chief rival, the opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

In the past, the regional leaders have been accused of being overly
deferential to Mugabe. And little had been expected to come out of the
conference after a powerful leader in the bloc, President Thabo Mbeki of
South Africa, flew first to the Zimbabwean capital to meet with Mugabe.

They emerged holding hands, and Mbeki blandly declared that he did not
think Zimbabwe was facing a political crisis.

The No. 2 man in Tsvangirai's party, Tendai Biti, praised the African
leaders, saying, "This is a major improvement, and SADC has acquitted
itself relatively well."

His praise was noteworthy because before the meeting began, Biti, a
labor lawyer, had said its outcome would be a test of whether the bloc
was anything more than what he called a trade union for dictators.

Celia W. Dugger reported from Johannesburg and Graham Bowley from New
York.