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MDC says has plan to deal with stolen election
Farisai Gonye, ZimOnline
February 18, 2008

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2726

Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition at the weekend said it would not challenge the outcome of next month's elections in the courts but had an alternative strategy to overturn a rigged election result.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party spokesman Nelson Chamisa would not spell out the details of the alternative strategy but said the party - that has unsuccessfully challenged previous poll results in court - had a "strategy to incapacitate" President Robert Mugabe's government in the event of another disputed election.

"We have a plan in place. The MDC will use a tried and yet untested (in Zimbabwe) strategy to incapacitate Mugabe," said Chamisa.

Both Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa were not immediately available for comment on the matter.

Zimbabwe, which is grappling with its worst ever economic crisis, holds local government, parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.

Analysts say an unfair playing field coupled with political violence and intimidation of opponents guarantees Mugabe's government victory at the polls despite its clear failure to break a vicious inflation cycle that has left consumers impoverished and the economy in deep crisis.

The MDC, local human rights groups and Western countries say Mugabe's government has repeatedly cheated its way to victory in previous elections in 2000, 2002 and 2005 - a charge the Harare administration denies.

Chamisa - who last month threatened Zimbabwe could see Kenyan-style violence in the event Mugabe rigged the polls but later backtracked apparently under pressure from senior MDC leaders - said the opposition party had resorted to the courts in the past but found no justice.

He said: "This time the courts are out of question, they are out of the picture. The MDC has a strategy that has been tested and used elsewhere, but untried in Zimbabwe.

"We are going to give that plan a chance to unseat an illegal government that would have cheated its way to victory. Mugabe has already started rigging this election and he has refused to accept our demands for electoral reforms."

In 2002, the MDC petitioned the High Court to nullify victory by candidates of Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF in more than 30 constituencies but the petitions died a natural death chiefly because of delays by the courts in hearing them.

A petition by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai against Mugabe's re-election victory in 2002 also suffered the same fate.

Critics accuse Zimbabwe's judiciary, re-moulded by Mugabe over the past eight years when he forced most independent judges to leave the bench, of failing to stand up against the veteran leader.

However, analysts say the MDC, weakened by internal division and a ruthless onslaught against its structures by Mugabe's police and military, lacks the capacity to effectively mobilise civil resistance against the government.

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