Constitutional lawyer Derek Matyszak yesterday predicted
that Mnangagwa will be declared the winner of the 2018 harmonised elections.
“My prediction is pretty much the same as it was in 2013.
Mnangagwa will be declared the winner of the elections and the courts will rule
that the elections were free and fair. This is so because the courts made it
clear that the MDC Alliance had come to court without any firm evidence,” Matyszak
said.
“So likely there is just going to be the ruling without a
full judgement to which the constitutional court will say it will give reasons
later. The main issue is that the MDC Alliance lawyers should have brought the
V11 forms to court.” Constitutional law expert Greg Linington said all the
lawyers were impressive, making it difficult to predict the trial ruling.
United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean lawyer Brighton Mutebuka said Mpofu had a
spectacular first half of the proceedings and a difficult second period when he
came under “sustained” attack because of the absence of the V11 forms. He was
also criticised for failing to ask for the “residue” or ballot papers to be
unsealed in line with the Electoral Act.
“The simple inescapable conclusion is that Team Chamisa did
not have enough of these. The other unavoidable conclusion is that Mnangagwa
and Zec had them but they steadfastly refused to file them. In fact, one of the
most stunning parts of the proceedings relates to the remarkable exchange that
Justice Rita Makarau had with Zec’s counsel, Tawanda Kanengoni,” Mutebuka
writes in his analysis of the proceedings.
“This related to Team Chamisa’s contention concerning exact
voting returns at certain polling stations. Justice Makarau asked how many V11s
Zec had filed to vitiate Chamisa’s contention and he replied that only two had
been submitted, despite the fact that Chamisa’s team had referred to anomalies
in at least 11. The very obvious question to be asked is why only two when the
matter was in contention and you have got access to all of them? No convincing
response was given in relation to this.”
Mutebuka said there was convincing response from Zec to the
issue of the 40 000 teachers who were disenfranchised.
“The case will now not turn on either the procedural or
substantive aspects. I think they will decide in Mnangagwa’s favour on both
accounts. The way I see it, Chamisa and his team have not been able to furnish
the court with a credible reason, pertaining to why they were unable to provide
all their V11 and V23 Forms to the court,” he said.
“If it was violence or intimidation by Zanu PF or both,
they needed to have gone out of their way to provide affidavits from their
polling agents addressing this. This is absolutely crucial, as Tawanda
Kanengoni, Zec’s lawyer, submitted some V11 forms directly contradicting Team
Chamisa’s claims, which forms were said to have been properly signed by MDC
polling agents. There was no comeback on this, and remember that Justices
Malaba, (Bharat) Patel, Makarau, (Paddington) Garwe, (Elizabeth) Gwaunza, Ben
Hlatshwayo all took turns to press on this point.” Zimbabwe Independent
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