Eddie Cross says Chamisa’s election challenge was an expensive, time wasting deviation

Eddie Cross, a member of the Movement for Democratic Change who broke ranks with his boss before the 30 July elections when he said Nelson Chamisa had put up a good fight but would not win the elections, says Chamisa’s court fight was an expensive and time wasting deviation for the country.

Writing on his personal blog, Cross said he was glued to his TV on 24 August to hear Chief Justice Luke Malaba deliver the unanimous Constitutional Court ruling that Emmerson Mnangagwa had been properly elected as the President of Zimbabwe.

“There is little satisfaction in being proved right that this was an expensive and time wasting deviation for the country, but at the same time I was proud at the dignity and professionalism conducted by everyone through the proceedings,” he said.

“It is activities like this that build nations. It strengthens constitutionalism, the rule of law and respect for the bench.”

Chamisa has, however, while claiming to have respect for the court, rejected its finding and is raising money to challenge the ruling with the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights.

“I am also glad that the decision was made that the proceedings be conducted in front of the public through the media,” Cross said.

“This amplified the impact and meant that at the end, we did not see any significant outpouring of anger on the streets by those whose petitions failed.

“This was a turning point for us as a country, the Mugabe era is behind us – we have a legitimate government elected in an election which was not ‘free and fair’ by any standard but was a big step forward after the criminal subversion of our democracy since 1980 by the Mugabe led administration.”

Cross attended Mnangagwa’s inauguration on Sunday together with former colleagues James Maridadi, Obert Gutu and Thokozani Khupe.

Chamisa and MDC Alliance partners did not attend because he argues he won the elections.

Chamisa says he won 2.6 million votes and Mnangagwa won less than two million but he has not shown how he came up with that figure which he is now using to raise funds to pay for the Constitutional Court case as well as the ACHPR petition.

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