MDC Press
21 OCTOBER 2003
Zimbabwe’S Democracy On Trial
On November 3 Zimbabwe’s fragile democracy, and the values we stand for as law abiding and peace loving Zimbabweans, will be on trial. This is the day Zimbabwe’s High Court finally opens proceedings to hear the MDC’s election petition, challenging the outcome of the March 2002 Presidential election, an election that was declared unfree and unfair by the Commonwealth Observer Group, the SADC Parliamentary Forum and by the wider international democratic community.
Under Zimbabwe’s electoral law a candidate is allowed 30 days within which to challenge the outcome of an election. The MDC believed the March 2002 Presidential election to be flawed, and as a law abiding party committed to non-violence, decided to challenge the legitimacy of the poll through the courts. The MDC filed its petition on 7 April 2002.
The very fact that it has taken over eighteen months for the case to come to court is a serious indictment against the state of Zimbabwe’s democracy. The MDC legal team has been pushing for the case to be heard since the petition was filed but its attempts have been continually frustrated by the respondents. The MDC had to eventually instigate legal action to get the case heard.
Those who criticise our decision to challenge Mugabe’s election victory in the courts fail to acknowledge that it is our legal and democratic right to do so. In any functioning democracy, if an election result is disputed then the aggrieved party has a right to challenge it. If it doesn’t then democracy in that country is in a perilous state. A failure by the MDC to challenge Mugabe’s victory would have been a betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe who we believe were unable to express their sovereign wishes in a free and fair poll.
The timing of the hearing is beyond our control and is not in anyway a deliberate attempt on our part to increase political tension and scuttle any chances of political dialogue. It is also important to remind the international community that Zanu PF broke off inter-party talks in May 2002 on the grounds that they would only engage in dialogue once the MDC election petition had been heard. They then proceeded to delay the case being heard, a point which reveals the level of their commitment to the dialogue process.
The MDC, on the other hand, has always been committed to dialogue and views it as the most effective mechanism for tackling Zimbabwe’s political and socio-economic crisis. Back in July, we issued a statement that stated clearly that the MDC would be willing to consider suspending the election petition in the event of irreversible progress being made towards tackling Zimbabwe’s crisis of legitimacy through a process of meaningful political dialogue.
We demonstrated our commitment to this process by up-grading our negotiation team and submitting an agenda for talks to the clerical intermediaries who were attempting to broker dialogue between ourselves and Zanu PF. We also acknowledged our responsibility to reduce political tension by ending our boycott of the opening of parliament and attending the funeral of Simon Muzenda.
Zanu PF has failed to reciprocate any of these gestures to reduce political tension and facilitate a process of political dialogue. In such circumstances it would be a betrayal of the democratic values we stand for as the leaders of the Zimbabwe’s social liberation movement to drop a court case that goes to the very heart of Zimbabwe’s democratic struggle.
Paul Themba Nyathi
MDC Secretary for Information and Publicity
Zimbabwe Information Centre Inc, PO Box K824, Haymarket NSW 1240, Australia. www.zic.com.au; info @ zic.com.au
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