Kevin Samaita

Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives ahead of his inauguration ceremony to swear in as president in Harare last November. Picture: REUTERS 

 

Zimbabwe’s constitutional court has upheld President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory in the July 30 elections, throwing out opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s petition that sought to overturn the result.
The landmark court ruling means Mnangagwa will be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president by Sunday.

Delivering his ruling at the constitutional court in Harare, chief justice Luke Malaba said Chamisa had failed to give the court "primary evidence".
"In the final analysis, the court finds that the applicant has failed to place before it clear, direct, sufficient and credible evidence that the irregularities he alleges marred the electoral process materially existed. In other words, there was no proof of the happenings of these irregularities as a matter of fact."
Malaba said it was difficult by global standards to overturn results of an election.
"As already indicated, it is an internationally accepted principle of election disputes that an election is not set aside easily, merely on the basis that irregularities occurred. There is a presumption of validity of an election. This is so also because as long as the election was conducted substantially in terms of the constitution and the governing laws it would have reflected the will of the people … it’s not for the court to decide elections, it is the people.
"It is the duty of the court to strive in the public interest to sustain that which the people have expressed their will in. Therefore the application ought to be dismissed and in the result the following order is made."
Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, refused to grant permission to South African lawyers Jeremy Gauntlett, Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi to represent MDC Alliance leader Chamisa in Wednesday’s constitutional court hearing, with the lawyers claiming this could have affected the case.
Arguments in Wednesday’s court ruling saw Chamisa’s lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, suggesting that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had cooked up 69,000 votes in favour of Mnangagwa.
Mpofu said the ZEC’s figures did not add up, adding the electoral body had announced three different presidential results, all which were crafted to favour the Zanu-PF leader.
"On the figures that are purely arithmetic, we have 69,000 under circumstances where we require 39,000 to establish that the first respondent [Mnangagwa] did not win this election.
Mpofu also accused the ZEC of manipulating primary data from V11 forms, documents that constitute results tallied at polling stations.
Zanu-PF’s lawyer, Lewis Uriri, said Chamisa’s case could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Zimbabwe court dismisses Nelson Chamisa’s bid to annul election result

24 August 2018 - 16:22 Kevin Samaita

Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives ahead of his inauguration ceremony to swear in as president in Harare last November. Picture: REUTERS

Zimbabwe’s constitutional court has upheld President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory in the July 30 elections, throwing out opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s petition that sought to overturn the result.
The landmark court ruling means Mnangagwa will be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president by Sunday.
Delivering his ruling at the constitutional court in Harare, chief justice Luke Malaba said Chamisa had failed to give the court "primary evidence".
"In the final analysis, the court finds that the applicant has failed to place before it clear, direct, sufficient and credible evidence that the irregularities he alleges marred the electoral process materially existed. In other words, there was no proof of the happenings of these irregularities as a matter of fact."
Malaba said it was difficult by global standards to overturn results of an election.
"As already indicated, it is an internationally accepted principle of election disputes that an election is not set aside easily, merely on the basis that irregularities occurred. There is a presumption of validity of an election. This is so also because as long as the election was conducted substantially in terms of the constitution and the governing laws it would have reflected the will of the people … it’s not for the court to decide elections, it is the people.
"It is the duty of the court to strive in the public interest to sustain that which the people have expressed their will in. Therefore the application ought to be dismissed and in the result the following order is made."
Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, refused to grant permission to South African lawyers Jeremy Gauntlett, Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi to represent MDC Alliance leader Chamisa in Wednesday’s constitutional court hearing, with the lawyers claiming this could have affected the case.
Arguments in Wednesday’s court ruling saw Chamisa’s lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, suggesting that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had cooked up 69,000 votes in favour of Mnangagwa.
Mpofu said the ZEC’s figures did not add up, adding the electoral body had announced three different presidential results, all which were crafted to favour the Zanu-PF leader.
"On the figures that are purely arithmetic, we have 69,000 under circumstances where we require 39,000 to establish that the first respondent [Mnangagwa] did not win this election.
Mpofu also accused the ZEC of manipulating primary data from V11 forms, documents that constitute results tallied at polling stations.
Zanu-PF’s lawyer, Lewis Uriri, said Chamisa’s case could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.