Thabani Mpofu throws Chamisa under the bus

The much-hyped Nelson Chamisa election challenge court case is over. His lawyer Thabani Mpofu said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had thrown Emmerson Mnangagwa under the bus but it appears that he was the one who had thrown his boss under the bus.

For three solid weeks, Chamisa insisted that he won the 30 July elections. He must be declared the winner. Emmerson Mnangagwa must do the honourable thing and concede defeat so that the country can move forward.

Chamisa claimed that he had overwhelming evidence to prove that he won the elections but in today’s hearing, which was broadcast live, his lawyer never talked about Chamisa winning.

He only talked about flaws in the election, that they were rigged in favour of Mnangagwa, that Mnangagwa had not won the required 50 percent plus one vote required for one to be an outright winner, but never that Chamisa had won.

If Mnangagwa did not have an outright win, then there should be a run-off but Mpofu seemed to be applying for the entire election to be invalidated.

The court reserved judgment until 2pm on Friday.

But whatever the outcome, Chamisa has betrayed the nation and, more so, his supporters.

For three weeks he told them he had won the election. Some even said they were buying suits for the inauguration.

Only this weekend, when he called on Mnangagwa to concede defeat, he said Mnangagwa had not won more than one million votes.

But today Mpofu said only some 69 000 or so votes must be deducted from Mnangagwa’s tally. This would still leave Mnangagwa with more than 2.3 million votes.

When asked what he would do about his sister now that Mnangagwa had won more than 10 percent of the vote, Chamisa said “he didn’t even get 5 %. He was given 50.8%”.

The question now is what next?

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