by Tinotenda Mutasa

In an apparent imminent double blow for MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa, his electoral petition filed at the Constitutional Court all but crumbled yesterday, as respondents in the matter took apart his application, exposing that it was based on hearsay and cooked up evidence.

Taking to the stand, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s lawyer, Tawanda Kanengoni explained to the Court that ZEC had noted clerical errors which were largely to be expected, and these represented a variance of 0.1%. He pointed out that the MDC Alliance was seeking to be dishonest in presenting ZEC’s noted errors as additional errors on top of the 0.1 percent.

On the issue of the adjusted electoral results figures, Kanengoni highlighted that the revision of the figures did not affect the validity of the declared election outcome. Chamisa, through his lawyer, Advocate Thabani Mpofu had claimed that the fact that ZEC revised its figures was enough proof for the court to nullify the election results.

 Further, Kanengoni highlighted that Chamisa’s case was not backed up by evidence as for example, he claimed that there was over voting at some stations while some polling stations “went missing” yet he failed to name the stations. Chief Justice Luke Malaba also queried why the applicant filed his case on secondary evidence instead of the more logical first and original evidence.

Earlier on, first respondent, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s lawyer, Advocate Lewis Uriri had summarily dismissed the Alliance’s petition as mere conjecture which would have been speedily deflated had the Alliance taken the obvious course of requesting for ballot boxes to be unsealed to prove their claims. He also highlighted that the Alliance’s petition was improperly before the courts.

The court will rule on the matter on Friday 24 august 2018