James Butty
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday presented to the Constitutional Court his response to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa’s challenge to the July 30th election results.
Chamisa says the elections were rigged, but ZANU-PF wants the court to dismiss the challenge because they claim that Chamisa might have missed the mandated deadline to file.
Dixon Dzora, director for administration of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, says Chamisa and his MDC have no case because Zimbabweans decided who should be their leader by virtue of the fact that President Mnangagwa won more votes than Mr. Chamisa.
“We thought as a democracy we went to the elections and the people spoke and when the people speak why do we then need to go through courts.”
Top MDC Alliance officials were not immediately available for comment.
According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Mnangagwa got 50.8 percent of the votes cast while Chamisa garnered 44.3 percent.
The Constitutional Court is expected, as per some provisions of Constitution of Zimbabwe, to take 14 days to make a ruling on the MDC Alliance’s court case.
The Constitutional Court has the power to declare a winner, nullify the results of the presidential election or make any other decision it deems necessary for the southern African nation.
