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Zim vote outcome challenged
07/05/2008 10:01 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition have filed petitions in the electoral court challenging half of the parliamentary results from March's general elections, state media reported on Wednesday.
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party is challenging results in 53 of the 210 constituencies while the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was disputing 52, the Herald newspaper said.
The volume of the petitions had prompted the country's chief justice to appoint 17 more judges to the electoral court, the paper said.
Master of the High Court, Charles Nyatanga, effectively the chief legal administrator, was quoted in the Herald as saying his office had "received 105 petitions, which have to be determined within six months in terms of the Electoral Act".
Nyatanga said lawyers handling the petitions had been invited for a meeting with judges on Friday.
"All the lawyers who are dealing with election petitions (are invited) to attend the meeting where the procedure would be discussed," he said.
The legislative election on March 29 saw Zanu-PF lose its majority in parliament for the first time since the former British colony's independence 28 years ago, with the MDC taking 109 seats against 97 for Mugabe's party.
A partial recount was held last month after the results in 23 constituencies were challenged but the initial outcome was confirmed in each seat.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai also beat Mugabe in a simultaneous presidential elections but fell short of an overall majority needed to avoid a second round.
The country's electoral agency is yet to announce the date for a second round of the presidential elections which Tsvangirai is threatening to boycott.
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