Former Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has lost 30 of the 39 petitions challenging the outcome of the July 31 elections.
The petitions filed by losing MDC parliamentary candidates failed to pass the preliminary stage of the hearings at the Electoral Court.
All the petitions dismissed so far were thrown out on a technicality that they failed to comply with the rules of the court.
The rules require that once a petitioner names a person as having engaged in illegal practices, he or she is required to provide full details for the accused and serve them with a copy so they could respond to the allegations.
Losing MDC candidates accused traditional leaders of forcing their subjects to vote for President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party in the polls.
Last month, MDC dropped 17 petitions and the rest have been dismissed by the Electoral Court.
The party, which refused to accept the outcome of the polls saying they were marred by massive rigging and fraud, had initially filed 95 petitions at the Electoral Court.
DROP MOST OF THE PETITIONS
However, the party was forced to drop most of the petitions after it failed to raise the $10,000 per petition demanded by the courts.
Mr Tsvangirai was also forced to drop his challenge against President Mugabe after the courts refused to release election material used in the polls.
The African Union and the Southern African Development Community declared the elections free and fair despite noting several irregularities in the reports.
But the European Union and the United States have refused to endorse the election outcome saying the polls were not credible.
President Mugabe has won three polls against Mr Tsvangirai and his MDC under controversial circumstances since the party was formed in 1999.
Zanu PF secured a two thirds parliamentary majority after it lost the 2008 polls to the same party.-nation.co.ke
