Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF has filed court papers opposing the challenge mounted by the opposition to Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election victory.
The arguments in opposition were filed at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. The court will now prepare to hear arguments for and against the motion.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, declared President Mnangagwa winner of the historic election last month. He obtained 2.46 million votes against 2.15 million for the opposition candidate.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alleges electoral fraud and rigging in favour of Mnangagwa.
On Friday MDC filed the petition with its leader Nelson Chamisa accusing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of doing a poor job in supervising over a free and fair election.
But the ruling party is rejecting these claims in its statement in opposition.
The ruling party’s legal affairs secretary, Paul Mangwana and one of Mnangagwa’s lawyers told reporters outside the court that Chamisa and his MDC have no case.
“We have successfully filed our opposition papers to this application, which we think is just a waste of time but that’s for the courts to decide
“Our team of legal practitioners is ready to meet the MDC Alliance in court,” Mangwana said.
The MDC is to respond to the submissions of the Zanu-PF. The constitutional court takes 14 days to hear and rule on such petitions.
The Court can uphold the result, declare a new winner or order a fresh election within 60 days. Its decision is final though.
Source: Africafeeds.com
