MDC-T withdraws court petition?

via MDC-T withdraws court petition reported by the Zimbabwe Guardian (?)  16 August, at 20 : 09 PM

“Reports from Harare say there was a meeting today of the MDC-T national executive with the British ambassador, Deborah Bronnert, over the 10,000 assisted voters claim which was proving embarrassing to the British establishment.

In order to avert a diplomatic crisis, the MDC-T was asked to withdraw their petition because there was no evidence, and there was an avalanche of opinions on how to deal with the lies by the ambassador – which were also repeated by the MDC-T in its court petition.

There was also debate over Justice Chinembiri Bhunu’s indefinite reservation of judgment on pushing the release of information by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). The party had hoped to build a case through ZEC records. Justice Bhunu thwarted that move by not allowing them access to the records because the MDC-T had to present its own evidence, because they made the claim before ZEC had even announced the results. The claims was made on 1 August, 2013 – a few hours after the closing of the poll and even before ZEC had an idea who had won the election.

The other issues that compounded the MDC-T problem was the breakup of the party; with the independent candidates from Matabeleland threatening to form another MDC party.

The final crunch was Bennett’s flight or resignation from the MDC-T which was robbing them of one of the characters who was a conduit between them and right wing funders of the party. Without them, Tsvangirai was going to be pushed into oblivion, and robbed of a stream of income necessary to sustain the party.

The last blow was the association of the MDC-T leadership with Israeli company, Nikuv and huge amounts of money paid for irrigation and other equipment by Tsvangirai, his deputy Thokozani Khupe and Theresa Makone, chair of the MDC-T Women’s Assembly.

All these issues, plus a weak court case, were set to embarrass the party, hence the withdrawal of the case today, to save face.

Tsvangirai simply did not have evidence of rigging. He was going against democratic principles by thwarting and delaying the will of the Zimbabwean people. The people voted overwhelmingly for Zanu-PF, giving it a clear mandate.”