Moyo withdraws petition citing lack of confidence in court

via Moyo withdraws petition citing lack of confidence in court | SW Radio Africa by Tichaona Sibanda January 21, 2014

The MDC-T national chairman, Lovemore Moyo, has withdrawn his election petition because of the electoral court’s bias against the main opposition party.

The former speaker had been contesting the results of the July 31st elections in Matobo North constituency, citing electoral fraud, but he withdrew the petition on Monday. He was defeated by ZANU PF’s Never Khanye who got 5,300 votes to Moyo’s 5,219. He filed a petition with the Electoral Court on August 15th last year.

Following the July 31st election the MDC-T filed 39 petitions but are left with only eight, following Moyo’s withdrawal. Many of the petitions have been dismissed by the electoral court after they failed to pass the preliminary stage of the hearings, while others have been withdrawn for alleged lack of evidence.

The MDC-T has accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of frustrating efforts by the party to prove the July 31st elections were rigged on a ‘monumental scale’ after the electoral body refused to make available documents that would help prove its claim of vote manipulation.

Our correspondent in Bulawayo, Lionel Saungweme, said Moyo told him on Tuesday that many of the petitions filed by the MDC-T have been thrown out for no apparent reason.

‘He believes the courts have set a trend by dismissing almost all MDC-T petitions, to a point where he also felt his would also be thrown out,’ Saungweme said.

Most losing MDC-T MPs said they did not expect any fair trials as the electoral court had been formed by President Robert Mugabe, the same person the opposition parties were trying to defeat at the election.

The MDC-T have still been denied access to an electronic copy of the voters roll.