Zanu (PF) insiders say about 10 lawyers from the private sector have been engaged by Zanu (PF)’s legal department to defend the former ruling party in a case that legal experts say could drag on for months.
The party has filed petitions challenging the results in 53 constituencies and the MDC has challenged 52. This amounts to 105 seats, exactly half of Zimbabwe’s 210 parliamentary seats.
The petitions were filed by losing candidates for alleged electoral malpractice such as vote-buying, intimidation and corruption. The Electoral Court began hearing the legal petitions last week.
Top Zanu (PF) sources said this week the party’s legal affairs boss, Emmerson Mnangagwa, had approached several law farms to handle the lawsuit and a budget of about Z$1.5 trillion had been allocated to the defence team.
Under the law, the court has six months to deal with the cases, with another six months allowed for appeals.
Post published in: News