Monday 6 August 2018

CHAMISA TO CHALLENGE 20 CONSTITUENCY RESULTS

THE Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance yesterday said it had gathered enough evidence to challenge electoral results in 20 constituencies, while results in other constituencies were still being analysed as the opposition desperately seeks to overturn Zanu PF and President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory in the July 30 polls.


Mnangagwa received 50,8% of the total votes, just enough to avoid a rerun while his party claimed a two-thirds parliamentary majority votes, but Chamisa has rejected the results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), claiming they were manipulated.

Chamisa on Saturday met all the party’s candidates who participated in the just-ended polls for a review of the process.

Speaking after the meeting, party chairperson Morgen Komichi said the meeting was part of the evidence-building process to enable them to file a court challenge against the results.

“We have successfully filed with the Electoral Court to challenge results in 20 constituencies, and we are still compiling evidence in some others,” Komichi said.

“President Chamisa had a meeting with all parliamentary candidates on Saturday.

“The meeting was to learn of the candidates’ experiences in the just-ended polls. The meeting also presented an opportunity for the candidates to bring forward some of the irregular practices they observed as part of our evidence building process.”

Komichi could not, however, name the affected constituencies, saying the party would release a comprehensive list as soon as they were done with the process.

He also could not give details of when Chamisa would file his presidential petition.

“We have all the evidence and we will challenge many constituencies as well, apart from the presidential polls,” Komichi said.

Chamisa last week vowed to “defend the people’s votes”, accusing his protagonist, Mnangagwa, of staging a coup against the will of the people.

Last week, Chamisa said he would explore all legal and constitutional methods to overturn Mnangagwa’s electoral victory, claiming his party had overwhelming evidence that Mnangagwa had stolen “the people’s victory”.

Mnangagwa has, however, defended his victory, claiming he had, indeed, according to his promise given the country a free, fair and credible poll. He urged Chamisa to accept the will of the people and work together to ensure a peaceful environment exists so that the country could focus on economic revival, a call dismissed by the youthful leader.

Despite some international observer missions declaring the poll free, fair and credible, Chamisa claimed, his own tabulation of data from V11 forms signed at polling stations gave him a 57% victory against Mnangagwa. Chamisa has challenged Zec to announce constituency-based results of the presidential poll. Newsday

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