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Tsvangirai drops challenge

August 16, 2013

Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has dropped a legal challenge against President Robert Mugabe's re-election, saying the courts wouldn't be fair. Tsvangirai had previously called for a new election.

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VIENNA, AUSTRIA - MAY 18: Morgan Richard Tsvangirai attend the third day of the CGDC Annual Meeting on May 18, 2012 in Vienna, Austria. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images For 2nd CGDC Annual Meeting 2012).
Image: Getty Images

"The Prime Minister has withdrawn his election petition," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said Friday. "The main reason is that this trial law's going to be a mockery of justice."

Mugabe, 89, won Zimbabwe's July 31 election with 61 percent of the vote to Tsvangirai's 34 percent. Tsvangirai contested the results, alleging widespread vote-rigging and intimidation on the part of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. He had filed a motion for the constitutional court to overturn the result and call fresh elections, with a hearing scheduled for Saturday.

The MDC said election organizers were blocking key documents needed in the case.

"It is extremely doubtful whether the MDC will receive a fair hearing," said Mwonzora, saying that the MDC party lacked the "crucial material" need to support its case.

Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbawe gained independence from Britain in 1980, now looks set to be inaugurated for another five-year term.

Many Western government questioned the fairness of last month's election, however election observers from the region have said the polls were free and orderly.

dr/kms (AFP, Reuters)