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Zimbabwe’s main opposition MDC Alliance says its followers are being hunted down, intimidated and beaten after last Sunday’s disputed elections.
The alliance’s decision to contest the poll in court has scuppered the inauguration of president elect Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The MDC Alliance has briefed South African advocate Dali Mpofu to fight its case.
Mpofu confirmed that his team will include advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Botswana counterpart Mokgweetsi Masisi were due to attend Sunday’s scheduled inauguration.
The Botswana government confirmed that the president had placed his trip on ice “due to the ongoing legal challenge by members of the opposition”.
Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, confirmed on Friday evening that the inauguration “will no longer be happening”.
Lawyers for MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa filed papers at Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court less than an hour before the close of business on Friday.
“We are busy serving papers on all the respondents,” said lawyer Chris Mhike as he rushed to deliver the opposition’s court papers to respondents.
In the court application for Mnangagwa’s victory declaration to be set aside, Chamisa argues that his “challenge to both the result of the election and the declaration of first respondent as the winner” was based on “procedural and statistical/mathematical” grounds.
He is also asking the court to declare him the winner or order another round of the presidential vote on the basis of a “lack of independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission”, failure of “state media to be impartial” and deployment of the military “throughout the country … to promote the interests of Zanu-PF and Mnangagwa”.
Mnangagwa and the other 22 presidential candidates are also cited as respondents.
It was expected that Mnangagwa – reported to have earlier refused to accept the papers served on him – will respond shortly, laying the foundation for a legal process which experts say has to be finalised before the end of this month.
In court papers, Chamisa also cites alleged irregularities regarding the voters’ roll, the order of appearance of candidates on ballot papers, postal ballots and the collection and verification procedures for presidential votes, as well as threats to voters.
He further states that the total number of registered voters as stated by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was around 5.6 million, stacked against a voter turnout of about 72%.
The number of “votes cast should be slightly above 4 032 000 on that computation”.
However, the votes the commission announced “give a total ... of some 4 775 640 and 4 774 878, respectively, [meaning] that from the results announced by the ZEC, more than 700 000 votes” cannot be accounted for.
Consequently, the discrepancy “materially affects the outcome of the election”, most likely in favour of Mnangagwa.
“These practices were widespread and well reported and the ZEC failed to take any action to prevent such practices or to report the breaches,” Chamisa said in his court application.
Opposition activists and officials said violence against and intimidation of their members have continued after the announcement of the election results. MDC Alliance officials said their members were being raided at night and intimidated by assailants believed to be military or members of Zanu-PF.
Chamisa’s spokesperson, Nkululeko Sibanda, said the raids were taking place to “ensure that people are denied the chance to challenge the election results” and that the opposition was fighting hard against the intimidation and violence waged against its members.
“People should be allowed to enjoy their freedoms,” he said.
Police and military authorities in Zimbabwe condemned the wave of violence, but said only three cases were being investigated.
Zimbabwe security forces “urged members of the public who have witnessed such incidents, fallen victim [to] or have knowledge of the assaults to report to the police”.
Opposition members said many cases had been reported but no action was taken.
The international community also condemned the violence while the US government extended sanctions against the Zanu-PF administration last week.
Business leaders and church groups are also concerned. Businessman and church leader Shingi Munyeza said yesterday that US sanctions would hurt Zimbabwe’s poor.
“People who have caused these sanctions should mop up their mess. We should be able to sit down and dialogue. The violence will not help matters,” he said.
There are now fears that the situation will deteriorate further, while some suggest a government of national unity would help the country heal after the death of six protesters.
Claris Madhuku, director of the Platform for Youth Development Trust, said: “A government of national unity may be problematic, although there are some within the opposition who are open to the idea of a coalition government because what has emerged from the presidential results is that people want leaders to work together.”
Chamisa and Mnangagwa have said they do not prefer a unity government and both insist they won the poll.
International leaders have also been engaging the two to settle the impasse.
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