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NCA Endorses Poll Results; Urges Tsvangirai to Accept Defeat


The National Constitutional Assembly has endorsed the outcome of the July 31 national elections and urged Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party to concede defeat.

NCA chairperson Lovemore Madhuku told a news conference in Harare Monday that the harmonized elections were free, fair and credible despite views to the contrary by MDC founding President Morgan Tsvangirai, the West and local monitors.

Madhuku urged Mr. Tsvangirai to concede defeat, urging him and his party to organize and start preparing for the next elections due in 2018.

“The NCA notes with satisfaction the peaceful atmosphere that characterised the period before, during and after the elections. All Zimbabweans have a responsibility to nurture this peaceful environment and desist from any actions which may directly or indirectly interfere with the peace prevailing in the country," said Madhuku.

"The election results have been announced. There are winners and losers. Every election has its winner and loser. Given the peaceful nature of these elections and the compelling need to move forward, the NCA urges the losers to concede defeat and take the country out of the permanent election mode it has been for several years now.”
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But Mr. Tsvangirai remains adamant that the polls were rigged in favour of Zanu PF, adding he will soon be approaching the courts, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community for redress.

In the absence of key democratic reforms, Mr. Tsvangirai said the July 31 poll results do not reflect the will of Zimbabweans.

"As a party, the MDC knows that even before a vote was cast, the outcome was inevitable because of a corrupt voters’ roll, unauthentic ballot papers, a highly partisan electoral commission, a partisan State media and army, police; and the bully boy militia in the wings," Mr. Tsvangirai's party said in a statement Monday.

"We know that the brutal Zanu PF regime has once more unashamedly and mercilessly subverted the will of the people," read the statement. "Therefore, the MDC totally rejects the outcome of this election as nothing but a huge farce. It is indeed a big lie, which even the brutal regime will not live with."

Western countries such as Britain, Australia and the United States have also backed Mr. Tsvangirai in rejecting the outcome of last week’s polls that saw President Robert Mugabe romping to victory with 61 percent of the total votes cast.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance Party of South Africa has refused to sign a report of the SADC Parliamentary Forum endorsing the polls saying it was clear that there were several irregularities that rendered the poll outcome illegitimate.
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