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Meanwhile, a petition challenging the constitutionality of a presidential decree banning opposition lawsuits over last June’s disputed election results is to be heard by the Supreme Court on 19 January, news reports said.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is contesting the results of the June legislative poll in 38 out of 120 parliamentary seats, on the grounds that violence and intimidation benefited the ruling ZANU-PF.
But last month, President Robert Mugabe decreed that no court hearings could be held to invalidate disputed election results “in the interest of democracy, peace, security and stability”, even if voting irregularities had been established.
At the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the government argued that it needed four weeks to prepare its case against the MDC’s petition, and that it would be hiring South African lawyers. The court ruled that it could only have two weeks. The MDC has 57 seats and would need to win 18 of the contested 38 constituencies to gain a majority in Zimbabwe’s 150-seat parliament.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions