Zim exiles protest in Pretoria

2008-04-07 12:16

Johannesburg - About 200 Zimbabwean exiles gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday to hand over a petition to President Thabo Mbeki regarding their country's election.

President of the Zimbabwe Revolutionary Movement Simon Mudekwa said the protesters felt that the delay in releasing the presidential election results was not democratic and Mbeki needed to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe to release the poll results.

"We want an urgent release of the election results. We cannot wait any longer," he said.

Mudekwa said Mbeki had the power to influence Mugabe into accepting that he had been defeated.

"He (Mbeki) needs to say that what he (Mugabe) is doing is not in line with the law. We need to force him to admit that he was defeated (in the election)," he said.

The petition was signed by members of the youth movement and Zimbabwe's civil society.

Mudekwa said police were threatening to arrest the protesters as the gathering had not been sanctioned.

"They are saying we need permission from the police. We are not leaving this place until we hand over our petition.

"They say they are going to arrest us. No problem. We're not leaving, we'll be sleeping here," said Mudekwa.

The presidential poll was held on March 29 and since, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has claimed an outright victory.

The ruling party, Zanu-PF, however, has said there was no clear winner and has pegged Mugabe for a second round vote.

The Harare High Court was expected on Monday to rule on an application by the MDC for a court order forcing the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to release the results.

Pretoria police could not immediately be reached for comment.

- SAPA