JURIST - Paper Chase: Zimbabwe court to expedite lawsuit to force release of election results

[JURIST] A High Court judge in Harare agreed Tuesday to expedite a lawsuit seeking to compel the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) to immediately release the results of the nation's March 29 presidential elections [JURIST reports], but continued to refrain from issuing an immediate ruling in the case. On Monday, the High Court ruled [JURIST report] it had jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit, brought by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website]. The MDC has said that a request by current Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) [party website] party for a vote recount [JURIST report] are a tactic to keep Mugabe in power. Mugabe has denied there is anything improper about his request.

The court Saturday postponed hearing the case [JURIST report] when lawyers for MDC were barred from entering the court. Earlier Tuesday, Zimbabwe police arrested at least five election officials [JURIST report] for allegedly under-counting around 5,000 votes for Mugabe. AFP has more.

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