by Ashely Kondo

The MDC Alliance’s bid to overturn the will of the majority of Zimbabweans that cast their votes in favour of President-elect, Emmerson Mnangagwa during the just ended 30 July 2018 harmonised elections is seemingly hitting a snag after Chamisa’s lawyer, Advocate Thabani Mpofu was grilled by the Constitutional Court (Con Court) bench over lack of factual evidence.

It has emerged during the Con Court hearing today that the MDC Alliance deliberately turned a blind eye to the use of primary evidence in its court application seeking the nullification of the presidential results announced by the Zimbabwe electoral Commission (ZEC) on 2 August 2018.

Asked why he had intentionally disregarded the use of primary evidence such as the v11 forms as required by the law, Advocate Mpofu alleged that the forms had been tempered with by ZEC for cover up and would not refer to them.

“It would be like drinking from a poisoned well,” said Advocate Mpofu.

However, Chief Justice Luke Malaba reminded Advocate Mpofu that the Con Court bench would leave no stone unturned in adjudicating his client’s court application.

“We would like to drink from the poison to establish the truth,” objected Chief Justice Malaba.

“We are a court of law and we deal with factual evidence not emotions, or perceptions and generalities…” added the Chief Justice.

Analysts have described the MDC Alliance’s petition as weak on facts and strong on political demagogy.

Legal experts have highlighted that Chamisa shot himself in the foot after scandalising the court by publicly declaring that the country’s courts are an appendage of ZANU PF and were in a conspiracy to undermine his perceived ascendancy to power.

Furthermore, it has also been noted that Chamisa did not observe the seven day window period to lodge his petition because the first respondent, President-elect, Emmerson Mnangagwa was only served on 11 instead of 10 August 2018 as stipulated by the law.

Given the foregoing, it has become apparent that the MDC Alliance would endure a legal defeat at the hands of Zanu PF.