JURIST - Paper Chase: Zimbabwe court rejects opposition request to block election recount

[JURIST] A judge in Zimbabwe on Friday dismissed an attempt by opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile] and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website] to block a partial recount of Zimbabwe's March 29 elections [JURIST report]. Official election results have not yet been released, but independent tallies suggest that Tsvangirai won the presidential election and that the parliamentary vote gave the opposition control of parliament. A recount is scheduled for Saturday because electoral officials have found problems with 23 constituencies. Tsvangirai and MDC accuse current Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile] of refusing to release official election results in an effort to maintain power. On Monday, the High Court of Zimbabwe rejected a bid by the MDC to compel the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) to immediately release the results of the election [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

On Thursday, Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) [party website] accused [JURIST report] Tsvangirai of treason, saying that Tsvangirai and Britain are conspiring to overthrow Mugabe. Zimbabwean police arrested at least 30 MDC members [JURIST report] this week after the party called for a strike to protest the nondisclosure of the election results. The police said that the MDC supporters were arrested for blocking roads and traffic and attempting to intimidate people from going to work after police announced a ban on all political rallies [JURIST report].

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