Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court hears poll challenge

Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court yesterday heard the main opposition party's challenge to the results of last month's presidential election. Legalbrief reports that there was a heavy police and military presence in Harare as the MDC claimed the vote had ‘gross mathematical errors’ as it moved to seek a fresh election or a declaration that its candidate Nelson Chamisa won the 30 July poll. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission ruled that Mnangagwa won with 50.8% of the vote, while Chamisa received 44.3%. ‘It's like a kid was playing with the figures,’ opposition lawyer Thabani Mpofu told the court. He alleged that 16 polling stations had identical results and that ‘massive doctoring’ took place. A report on the News24 site notes that Mpofu said the electoral commission produced three sets of presidential vote results, including one in court papers where the commission revised Mnangagwa's win down to 50.67%. The report notes that commission attributed that to an ‘error’, but argued it was not significant enough to invalidate the win. Mpofu said that in all Chamisa could have lost more than 69 000 votes, well over the 31 000 votes that allowed Mnangagwa to avoid a run-off election. ‘On that basis a run-off is unavoidable,’ he said. Chief Justice Luke Malaba who pressed the opposition for the original election results forms to back up its allegations said court will tomorrow uphold or overturn Mnangagwa’s election victory.

Full Fin24 report

Chamisa roped in South African legal heavyweights Dali Mpofu, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Jeremy Gauntlett to assist his local attorneys but they were barred from standing before the justices as they did not have the necessary permits. Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told Business Day that the ‘official position’ was that ‘none of the SA-based lawyers will present arguments in court’. ‘They did not apply in time to appear in today’s court session, but they are free to appear in court just like other observers,’ he said. This is not the first time Zimbabwe’s courts have been asked to adjudicate contested presidential elections. In 2013, the late MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, went to court, claiming he was robbed of victory by the ruling ZanuPF’s Robert Mugabe.

Full City Press report