Douglas Mwonzora pulls out of August 23 presidential race

MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora announced on Tuesday that he was dropping out of the running to be the next president of Zimbabwe.

 

He referred to the August 23 election as “a sham and a farce.”

“We are not going to be part of the baptism, blessing of this sham. This election is a farce,” Mwonzora told journalists at a press conference in Harare.

He said the MDC-T’s 24 constituency candidates who successfully filed nomination papers will still participate in the election.

“We have seen massive disenfranchisement, mass disqualification of a good number of people. There is no doubt why the MDC is being treated in a different manner from other political parties, it is because the MDC took ZEC to court over delimitation,” Mwonzora went on.

“The delimitation that we fought against is now in force and its effects are now clear on this election. Right now as we are speaking ZEC is busy changing boundaries of wards and constituencies. It has added more than a 1,000 more polling stations because delimitation was invalid.

“Having seriously considered this, and being a patriotic Zimbabwean, I took part in the crafting of the constitution of our land. I believe that the constitution is not there for decoration. I believe that there is a minimum standard of integrity required in our electoral system, and I believe that the mass disenfranchisement of our people, the discrimination of one party by the election management body, and with the concurrence of my party, I have withdrawn my candidature in this election. We are boycotting this farce, we are boycotting this sham, we are boycotting this presidential election.”

Mwonzora said he had advised ZEC of his withdrawal and specifically requested that his name is not included on the ballot paper.

 

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