Legal team calls for challenge dismisal ‘Chamisa poll petition was late’
THE MDC Alliance missed the deadline to serve its poll petition on President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Constitutional Court should thus dismiss it, Zanu-PF’s lawyers have said.
The ruling party also says the papers were not served at the address President-elect provided to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for purposes of the election.
Further, the bulk of the other 21 Presidential candidates cited as respondents in the MDC Alliance’s petition yesterday said they had not been served with any papers, with some slamming the losing party’s leader, Mr Nelson Chamisa, for trying to drag them into his battles.
As such, President-elect Mnangagwa’s party wants the case dimissed before the merits of the opposition's challenge are even considered.
Zanu-PF has at least 12 lawyers handling the matter. Last Friday, the MDC Alliance sought nullification of the Presidential election results announced by Zec, or for the court to declare Mr Chamisa the winner of the polls.
In the harmonised elections, Zanu-PF won more than two thirds of National Assembly seats up for grabs; while President-elect Mnangagwa took 50,8 percent of the Presidential vote to Mr Chamisa’s 44,3 percent.
The ruling party yesterday said the matter should be dismissed because the MDC Alliance faltered at law by failing to serve papers to President-elect Mnangagwa on time, and also served the papers at the wrong address.
In the event that this request is not granted, Zanu-PF’s lawyers expressed confidence that the matter would be dismissed because the issues raised by the MDC Alliance were not sound at law and were mere politicking.
Politburo member Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said, “In my capacity as Secretary for Legal Affairs of Zanu-PF party, I would like to confirm that, this morning the 11th of August 2018, and at 1030 hours, the Sheriff of the High Court of Zimbabwe, purportedly served papers in respect of Constitutional Challenge Case No CCZ 42/2018 on Comrade ED Mnangagwa at his Munhumutapa Office.
“The purported service is irregular for a number of reasons, including that, it is hopelessly out of time, the pronouncement having been made on or before the 3rd of August, 2018. Service should have been done by Friday, the 10th of August, 2018.
“In any event, service should have been effected at Comrade ED Mnangagwa’s address, as given in his nomination papers, being Pricable Farm, Sherwood Block, Kwekwe, and further that, from the papers delivered, there is not attached some documents referred to in the application.
“To our knowledge, because of the attempt to catch respondents by surprise, the applicant has failed to effect service on time, and in accordance with the law.”
Cde Mangwana said Zanu-PF had assembled a “Legal Dream Team” of about a dozen lawyers to handle the matter.
“We have a team of lawyers led by Advocate Lewis Uriri and Advocate Thembinkosi Magwaliba for the court challenge. These two will be supported by 10 other locally based lawyers. We are going to file, most probably on Monday. We are confident of winning this case because the matters raised are political rather than legal.”
Most of the Presidential candidates who stood in the July 30 elections and were cited as respondents said they were yet to receive Mr Chamisa’s petition as of yesterday.
Spokesperson for Dr Thokozani Khupe’s MDC-T, Mrs Priscillah Misiharabwi-Mushonga said: “The last time I checked with Dr Khupe that was around 2pm (yesterday) she had not received anything. However, we will let the courts decide and we will go with whatever the courts decide.”
Mr Divine Mhambi Hove of the Nationalists Alliance
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