Godfrey Tembo
Harare, Zimbabwe(News of the South)-The Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC has hailed the recent annulment of Kenyan presidential election results by that country’s Supreme Court saying the move is a win for free and fair elections whilst warning the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to be professional in conducting the 2018 elections.
The Kenyan Supreme Court last Friday annulled incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta’s win over rival Raila Odinga citing various discrepancies in the results.
MDC-T which has previously contested election results in Zimbabwe’s courts with nothing positive coming out said elections should be an occasion that affords voters the right to freely and fairly choose their representatives.
“As long as an election is marred by gross irregularities, it undermines the will of the people and in the process, it becomes a direct attack on the concept of democracy.
“We would like to applaud the judiciary in Kenya for being bold and independent enough to come up with this kind of ruling in a very high profile and politically sensitive case”, it said through its spokesperson Obert Gutu.
Gutu stated that many times Zimbabweans have been denied the opportunity to freely and fairly choose a government of their choice.
“The people of Zimbabwe will remember that the 2002 MDC Presidential election petition is still pending, more than 15 years after it was filed in the courts of law. This is a classic example of the bastardisation of the rule of law in Zimbabwe.”
According to the party the ruling by the Supreme Court in Kenya is historic and ground – breaking.
“As Zimbabwe approaches the harmonised elections in 2018, we call upon ZEC to fearlessly and resolutely exercise its constitutional mandate to run a free and fair election.
“ZEC should flex its muscles and make it unambiguously clear that it shall not tolerate or countenance any electoral malfeasance from any quarter.
“Put differently, ZEC has to work extremely hard in order to gain the confidence and trust of the voting public”, it said.
ZEC has been under a lot of pressure to conduct a professional election after previous accusations of a being a ZANU PF instrument.
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