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Constitutional Court Gears for Dramatic Poll Challenge

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Constitutional Court Gears for Dramatic Poll Challenge Legalbrief | your legal news hub Tuesday 28 September 2021 Constitutional Court gears for dramatic poll challenge All eyes are on Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court which will this week decide the outcome of the violent and bitterly disputed 30 July presidential election. And the stakes are sky-high, reports Legalbrief. Just months after sidelining Robert Mugabe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly defeated opposition leader Nelson Chamisa's MDC which claims there were 'gross mathematical errors'. Nine Constitutional Court justices and five days are all that stand between the country's turbulent past and and uncertain future. Zanu-PF was today (Monday) due to file its heads of argument ahead of Wednesday's court sitting. After the hearing, the justices – led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba – will have until Friday to announce their decision. The Sunday Times reports that parliamentary and civic rights watchdog Veritas Zimbabwe said the court had several options. These include confirming the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) declaration on 3 August that Zanu-PF's Mnangagwa had won the election with 50.8% of the votes, declaring the MDC's Chamisa as the winner (even though the ZEC said he received just 44.3% of the votes) or invalidating the election. Southern African leaders have called for calm in Zimbabwe. A report on the News24 site notes that SADC in a statement at the close of its two-day summit in Namibia, urged Zimbabweans to ‘remain calm while the legal processes regarding the outcome of the elections are being considered by the courts and to respect the will of the people’. In a speech at the summit on Friday, Mnangagwa said he was happy that poll observers had concluded that the elections were held in an ‘unprecedented peaceful, orderly and free environment and that their outcome represented the free and democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe’. The ZEC has trimmed down the percentage of votes it awarded Mnangagwa. However, the adjustment is not enough to overturn his victory in last month’s poll. The amendment was revealed by ZEC chair Priscilla Chigumba in her response to Chamisa's court challenge to Mnangagwa's victory. The Daily News reports that Chigumba said there had been a ‘clerical error’ that affected the original tally. Chamisa gained an extra 4 483 votes while Mnangagwa lost 4 453 votes. This represents a change of 0.08% of the results announced. ‘The final computations do not alter significantly the announced 2018 presidential results,’ she said. A report on the News24 site notes that the miscalculation, albeit a slight one, will fuel criticism of ZEC, which was accused of bias and incompetence ahead of the 30 July poll. If Mnangagwa had received 40 000 fewer votes, his share of the vote would have been under 50% and there would have been a run-off. South African legal heavyweights, advocates Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi have arrived in Harare to prepare for the case. However, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi this weekend warned that they cannot practise without his permission. ‘They need to apply to me to consider the request and advise the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) accordingly,’ Ziyambi told The Herald. ‘Suppose they want to argue this matter.....they know the procedure to follow. As it is, I do not know what their game plan is,’ he added. Chamisa's spokesperson, Nkululeko Sibanda told New Zimbabwe that Kenyan and Zambian lawyers are also due to join the MDC Alliance's legal team. The Daily Maverick reports that the team is expected to argue that the poll was rigged and that it wasn’t free and fair because, inter alia, the state media was biased. They claim to have figures showing that Chamisa was really the winner of the poll, and should be declared as such, or alternatively they want a run-off election between the two candidates (this would have to happen next month) or a complete re-run of the elections. Comparisons have been drawn between Kenya’s disputed presidential poll last year that re-elected Uhuru Kenyatta, and the disputed Zimbabwe poll. In Kenya, Kenyatta's victory was nullified by the Supreme Court after a successful petition launched by opposition leader Raila Odinga, notes a report on the News24 site. ‘Odinga has close ties with Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC Alliance,’ New Zimbabwe reported. ‘His (Chamisa's) legal team hired from Kenya will likely provide interesting insights’ on the Kenyan experience, it added. And the Daily News reports that top South African lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett who once advised Nelson Mandela will also join Chamisa’s legal team. MDC Alliance politician David Coltart tweeted: ‘We trust the application will be granted urgently. Anything less will be a travesty’. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation has been granted what appears to be the sole right to broadcast the poll challenge. In a response to an application filed together with many more in the private broadcasting space to air the event, the Judicial Services Commission gave ZBC-TV the go-ahead, to the exclusion of others. 'We are pleased to note that you have the capacity to distribute live signal feed to other broadcasters who may be interested in covering the court proceedings. We will accordingly refer them to you if there is need,' the commission said. New Zimbabwe report that the Media Institute of Southern Africa has filed a constitutional challenge demanding the right to broadcast the event. MDC Alliance chief elections officer Morgen Komichi was on Saturday freed on $200 bail by Harare magistrate Francis Mapfumo after spending two nights in police cells. A report on the allAfrica site notes that Komichi is charged with contravening the Electoral Act after he allegedly gate-crashed a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission press conference to discredit the presidential election results. The court also ordered the former Transport deputy Minister to report twice a week at Harare Central police, not to interfere with witnesses and to continue residing at his given address as part of his bail conditions. Komichi is expected to be back in court later this week after his lawyers indicated that they intended to challenge the constitutionality of his arrest. See Africa Analysis.
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