Tsvangirai officially withdraws but Mugabe to go ahead with run off

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Violet Gonda
24 June 2008

Morgan Tsvangirai has officially resigned from the presidential run-off. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the party had personally handed a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on Tuesday afternoon. He said the MDC would now wait for a response from the electoral commission. Chamisa added that the party would not endorse or recognize the election and the results thereof.

However the Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has told AFP new agency the run off election will go ahead as planned on Friday despite Tsvangirai’s withdrawal from the presidential the race.

Chinamasa is quoted saying: “Any withdrawal verbal or written is a nullity,” adding that if Tsvangirai had wanted to pull out of the race he should have done so 21 days before the first round of voting on March 29.

Tsvangirai first announced his withdrawal at a press conference on Sunday, saying politically motivated violence has made it impossible for a free and fair poll. Scores of MDC members have been killed, tens of thousands injured, arrested, displaced and the government retribution against its perceived opponents is continuing, despite worldwide condemnation.

The MDC leader himself has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare.

Despite overwhelming evidence of violence on the ground Chinamasa told the AFP political violence was not so bad as to affect the outcome of the polls.

Meanwhile independent legal opinions commissioned by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) have said the run-off should have been held by April and therefore the delay and the absence of a lawful run-off means the candidate who received the most votes in the first round should be declared the winner. That would of course be Morgan Tsvangirai.

Legal expert David Coltart said the opinions drafted by highly competent Senior Counsel, David Unterhalter, Wim Trengove and Max du Plessis, should be taken seriously. But Coltart said the statements assume that we are dealing with a lawful, rational regime that is prepared to take the rule of law seriously and a judiciary that would give serious consideration to the arguments. He said: “Neither is the case and so to that extent the opinions remain academic. There is no doubt that they add further strength to the argument that Mugabe is illegitimate, but ultimately even that issue will be resolved politically not legally.”

But another constitutional law expert, Dr Lovemore Madhuku, said on Monday; ‘The strict legal position is that candidature for the run-off or the second election is not a voluntary exercise, you give your consent when you contest the first election.” He said this is an “irreversible process” and the kind of “charade” which the law in Zimbabwe allows and which does not address the issue of the violence.

In his withdrawal letter to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Tsvangirai said: “There have been no rules prescribed for the conduct of a presidential run-off election and in particular the notice period set for the withdrawal of candidature by a participant. Accordingly, any candidate wishing to withdraw his candidature is free to do so at any time, before such an election.”