PRESIDENT-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn into office on Sunday at the National Sports Stadium in Harare in line with the law after the Constitutional Court dismissed MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa’s presidential challenge on Friday.

Mnangagwa was declared winner of the elections by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission with a revised 50.67% percentage of votes against Chamisa’s 44.3%.

However, Chamisa disputed the results and approached the ConCourt to determine his case.

Chief Justice Luke Malaba, sitting with eight other Constitutional Court judges, dismissed the case and declared Mnangagwa the legitimate President of Zimbabwe.

In an interview with state media
On Friday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said Mnangagwa will be inaugurated within two days after the court’s ruling.

“The constitution says the inauguration should be held in 48 hours. So the judgement was delivered around 4PM, which means by 4PM on Sunday that (inauguration) process must be complete. I think the programme is being made to ensure that by 4PM we are through,” said Minister Ziyambi. He said Government departments have started preparing for the swearing-in ceremony.

“The relevant departments, the Foreign Affairs Ministry is already busy contacting the foreign dignitaries we had previously invited so that on Sunday the process must be completed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zanu-PF party hailed the Constitutional Court’s declaration of Mnangagwa as the winner of the July 30 presidential polls. The party’s national secretary for information and publicity, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, said they were elated by the judgment while calling for peace.

“Following the epoch making unanimous verdict by the Constitutional Court declaring unequivocally that, the winner of the Presidential election held on 30 July 2018 is President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the revolutionary party Zanu-PF and its entire membership across the country and in the Diaspora is elated with superlative geniality,” said Cde Khaya Moyo.

“The people spoke during the recently held harmonised elections and now the ConCourt’s full bench, after a transparent legal process televised live, has endorsed the people’s will. The moment of truth is upon us, celebrations are beckoning, peace must prevail, we must embrace each other, it has been worth the democratic effort, we are a proud nation and real work now begins. We must deliver and live by our party’s motto ‘Unity, Peace and Development.’ Together we cannot fail.

State Media