JURIST - Paper Chase: Zimbabwe high court rejects opposition bid to force release of election results

[JURIST] Zimbabwe's High Court rejected a bid Monday by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website] to compel the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) to immediately release the results of the country's March 29 presidential election [JURIST reports]. Last week, the High Court ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit and agreed to expedite the case [JURIST reports].

On Sunday, the High Court ordered the ZEC to refrain from recounting the results [JURIST report] of the elections until the presidential poll results are announced. 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] for a vote recount [JURIST report] is a tactic to keep Mugabe in power. On Friday, Zimbabwean police banned all political rallies [JURIST report] as tensions continued to mount after the contested elections. Independent observers say that MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile] won more votes than Mugabe but likely not enough to reach the 50 percent plus one needed for outright victory. Reuters has more.

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