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HARARE - Lovemore Moyo, the MDC national chairperson, has withdrawn his election petition contesting the results of the July 31 elections for Matobo North constituency, fearing he will not get a fair hearing.
Moyo was contesting the results at the Bulawayo High Court citing electoral fraud.
The former Speaker was defeated by Zanu PF’s Never Khanye in the Matobo North National Assembly seat.
Moyo polled 5 219 votes while Khanye garnered 5 300 votes.
He filed a petition with the Electoral Court on August 15 last year in terms of Section 167 of the Electoral Act, Chapter 2:13.
Moyo was represented by Kucaca Phulu and had cited Khanye as the first respondent, the Matabeleland South provincial elections officer, Mark Dube as the second respondent and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) as the third respondent.
In his founding affidavit, Moyo had argued that the electoral process was marred by irregularities.
“On the morning of 30 July 2013, I received a call that our elections agent for Bhazha polling station who was manning the special vote ballot boxes had been ejected from the polling station by the presiding officer on the basis that her name was not on the consolidated elections agents list for the polling station,” he said in his court application.
“On the election day, election agents were refused entry into the polling stations in Silozwe, Induna Primary School, Gwandavale, Lukazi, Tohwe, Whitewater, Matopos, Bhazha and Minda Primary Schools even though election agents were there before the start of the vote at 7am.
“Given the fact that our agents were denied entry, there is a possibility of us having been prejudiced of a substantial number of votes.
“In terms of the law each candidate is entitled to have a polling agent representing him or her at the polling station during the conduct of the election.”
He argued all his polling agents were denied entry into the polling stations for over 12 hours, thereby disabling them from assessing the electoral process.
Commenting on his withdrawal, he said: “Zimbabwe is still far from holding democratic election that are not contestable, therefore it would be naive for anyone to believe that the system that rigged us some six months ago will give us a fair hearing and even in the event that there is a re-run of the election, it is about the environment we find ourselves which is not conducive for elections.
