Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lost a court appeal on Thursday demanding a computerised list of all Zimbabweans who had been registered to vote in March’s disputed presidential elections.
The ruling will force the MDC, which alleges fraud in the voters rolls, to manually input information on the 5,6 million registered voters into computers for analysis.
The MDC had wanted copies of the election commission’s compact discs so computer specialists could search for irregularities and duplications in the rolls.
The Supreme Court in Harare ruled there was no legal provision for the discs to be handed over and said the opposition had asked the court to ”stretch” electoral law.
The opposition is challenging the results of presidential
elections that extended President Robert Mugabe’s 22-year rule by a further six years. No date has yet been set for that court case.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai officially garnered around 1,2 million votes to Mugabe’s 1,6 million in a vote independent observers condemned as marred by ruling party intimidation and rigging, including the late addition of at least 400 000 names to the voter’s list.
The MDC said it had a right to paper copies of the voting lists — which will fill about two pickup trucks — and will now have to copy and scan them into digital format for computer analysis to look for discrepancies and duplications believed to have favoured Mugabe.
Searching the paper copies would be virtually impossible, the MDC said.
The government, meanwhile, warned a leading human rights group its leaders faced arrest for failing to meet new registration regulations as a non-governmental organisation, state radio reported on Thursday.
The Amani Trust, which has compiled detailed reports of human rights violations and political violence in Zimbabwe has not registered with the government as they had been ordered to on September 13, the radio said.
The government accused the trust of conducting ”clandestine
operations to unseat it,” partly funded by Britain, the former colonial power, the radio reported.
In August, Amani director Frances Lovemore was charged with
allegedly releasing false reports on torture and rape blamed on ruling party militants. She was freed and has yet to be tried.
Zimbabwe has been wracked by political violence and economic turmoil for the past two and a half years.
More than half the population of 12,5 million face hunger in the coming months after disruptions in the agricultural economy blamed on a drought and the government’s seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms. – Sapa-AP