Zimbabwe's High Court ruled today that an opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) application for the release of presidential election results may proceed.
"I find that the application is urgent. The case should now proceed," judge Tendai Uchena said.
An election poster with a portrait of President Robert Mugabe in Harare today
The judge then began to hear arguments from lawyers for the MDC and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is opposing the application.
Zimbabweans are waiting to see whether the March 29th election will end the 28-year-rule of President Robert Mugabe or make way for a run-off vote between him and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Tsvangirai says he has won the election and should be declared president, but Mr Mugabe's party is pushing for a further delay in issuing results pending a recount.
Today’s ruling may still result in a long legal battle.
Earlier today, police arrested five election officials on charges of fixing results against the president, which observers say could be part of an attempt to switch more votes to Mr Mugabe.
Police said the five officials were accused of giving Mr Mugabe 4,993 votes fewer than were cast for him in four districts.
After an increasingly authoritarian rule during 28 years in power, Mr Mugabe has reportedly conceded in private that he did not win but is using intimidation of his opponents and exploitation of racial tensions to attempt to stay in power.
He has urged Zimbabweans to defend land seized from white farmers in recent years, the state-controlled Heraldnewspaper said. "This is our soil and the soil must never go back to the whites," Mr Mugabe said,
He spoke as militants began invading more white farms and demanding the owners leave. Such land seizures started in 2000 as Mr Mugabe’s response to his first defeat at the polls.
A Commercial Farmers' Union spokesman said at least 23 farms were invaded and the owners of about half of them were driven off their land.
Mr Mugabe’s land reform program was supposed to redistribute among poor blacks large commercial farms owned by about 4,500 whites that covered 80 per cent of Zimbabwe’s best land. Instead, he used the farms to extend his patronage system, giving them to ruling party leaders, security chiefs, relatives and friends.
Today, a third of Zimbabweans depend on international food handouts, and another third have fled abroad looking for work or political asylum. Eighty per cent of Zimbabwe’s workers do not have jobs, and the inflation rate is running at 100,000 per cent a year.
Agencies