Terrence Mawawa

Emmerson Mnangagwa has claimed that there was no media bias ahead of the July 30 polls.

In his heads of argument filed at the
Constitutional Court on Monday, Mnangagwa claimed that there
was no media bias ahead of the July 30 harmonised elections.

Mnangagwa pointed out that MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa was happy with the media coverage he received.

Below is Mnangagwa’ s argument:
The extent to which media had an
influence over the manner in which
people voted has not been established.
The applicant’s conclusion remains
conjectural. This is not evidence, apart from the fact that this allegation is not pleaded with sufficient particularity to constitute the requisite jurisdiction facts.

The 23rd respondent (Zec) and the Zimbabwe Media Commission have the statutory mandate to monitor media coverage during an election, S160H-K of the Electoral Act.
If the applicant had genuine complaints against the media coverage of the election in question, he would have lodged complaints with both the Zimbabwe Media Commission and the 23″ respondent before the election, (see 5190 of the Electoral Act).

He would have provided evidence of such complaints. He has not done so. He has not done so because such evidence does not exist. He has not done so because he was happy with the coverage and access he received, not just from what he calls the State media, but from all media houses both internal and external.

This ground cannot be sustained. It
had no effect on the results.