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Zimbabwe Opposition Withdraws Court Challenge to Mugabe Election Win

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe‘s main rival Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn his party’s court challenge against last month’s poll outcome.

According to a report on businessweek.com:

“Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change said Friday that it is withdrawing a court challenge over disputed election results that gave long-time President Robert Mugabe a commanding victory, saying it did not believe it would get a fair hearing.

“The party said in a document filed at the Constitutional Court that it will not participate in a hearing scheduled Saturday and asked that the nine judges of the highest court be advised of the withdrawal. Outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is a leader of the opposition group.

“By late Friday evening, the MDC had not received another court judgment on its demands for the release of crucial election material by the state Election Commission. It believes the material will help it corroborate claims that up to 1 million eligible voters were kept from voting and that ballots were cast in the names of dead people.”

End of Zimbabwe court challenge paves way for Mugabe inauguration

The decision by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party to drop their challenge to the presidential election clears the way for Mugabe’s inauguration for another five-year term.

According to timeslive.co.za: “Mugabe was declared the winner of the July 31 election with 61 per cent of the vote, but the inauguration was frozen after … Tsvangirai of the MDC – who got 34 per cent – challenged the result.

“Tsvangirai accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of rigging the poll in favor of Mugabe, who has governed the country since independence in 1980.”

“Now the swearing-in of the president can go ahead. There is no way Tsvangirai can mount another challenge as he can only do that within seven days of the announcement of the results,” lawyer Jonathan Samkange said on Saturday.

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