Zimbabwe’s MDC drags Mugabe to court over “landslide” presidential victory

Special to  USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/MandelaAchebeChido Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247

Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change has filed papers with the Constitutional Court

challenging President Robert Mugabe’s re-election alleging the July 31 votes were rigged by the 7-term ruler.

MDC, which is led by Morgan Tsvangirai, cites what it considers to be voting fraud, illegalities and intimidation of voters by the controversial Mugabe and his popular ZANU (PF).
MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora has said that “We want a fresh election within 60 days. The prayer that we also seek is to declare the election null and void.”
The court is required by Zimbabwe’s constitution to rule on the petition within 14 days. Mugabe will not be sworn in until filing is ruled upon by the court.

——–

Mugabe’s 7th term? ZANU-PF declares “landslide victory”; opposition says it’s “a huge farce”

By Chido Nwangwu, USAfrica (Houston)

USAfrica, August 1, 2013: The 89-year-old controversial President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have set and claimed the stage for the 33-years uninterrupted continuation of the battle tested political war horse as leader of the country since independence in 1980.

ZANU-PF has claimed victory ahead of the formal announcement by the Zimbabwe’s Election Commission (ZEC).

Meanwhile, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has said that “This election [of July 31, 2013] has been a huge farce…. In our view, that election is null and void … It is a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people.”

Special to  USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/MandelaAchebeChido Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247

Saviour Kasukuwere, the Youth and Indigenisation minister, claimed: “It’s a landslide, a total annihilation of the MDC. Their project has completely failed. President Mugabe has won. The villagers in the countryside know the result. I’m excited. I was young at independence in 1980. Today, I feel very independent. Our country is now firmly in our hands. It’s a second coming.”

Tsvangirai who is Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister alleged that ZANU-PF used proxies, community leaders and chiefs as agents to intimidate voters. He then concluded that “For the above reasons, the election has been heavily manipulated.” This is the third attempt by the 61-years-old Tsvangirai to beat the hard-charging Mugabe, who dismissed the African Union’s head of monitoring team Nigeria’s former ruler rtd General Obasanjo as the July 31 elections monitor chief for African Union: “Obasanjo is a known election manipulator whose democratic credential has always promoted left wing politics right from his days as the chairman of the Eminent [Persons Group].”
Obasanjo has assessed the election as relatively free and fair.
Tsvangirai has also warned that “the outcome of this election is illegitimate. But more importantly, the shoddy manner in which it has been conducted and the consequent illegitimacy of the result will plunge this country into a serious crisis.” A few days before the voting, Mugabe said Tsvangirai “is opposed to everything, he is crying every day.”

‪————

#‎USAfricaLIVE‬ USAfrica Founder ‪‎Chido Nwangwu‬ was Live on London-based network ‪#‎SKYNews‬ world report on July 29, 2013.
The video news clip is here http://youtu.be/4kwz0FHMBfU
Follow him Twitter.com/Chido247

——-

Obama’s late to symbolic, historic meeting with Mandela. By Chido Nwangwu.  https://usafricaonline.com/2013/06/26/obamas-late-to-symbolic-historic-meeting-with-fit-mandela-by-chido-nwangwu/

Follow  @Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/USAfricaChido n Facebook.com/USAfrica247

CNN International profiles USAfrica’s Founder Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/2010/06/29/cnn-chido-usafrica/

Also, see Tiger Woods is no Nelson Mandela! 

—— Forthcoming 2013 book: In this engaging, uniquely insightful and first person reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two global icons and towering persons of African descent whose exemplary livesand friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, the author takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.” He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.”I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/