The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Nelson Chamisa on Saturday “installed” the 40 year-old lawyer and minister of religion as president of Zimbabwe, two months after President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared by the Constitutional Court as winner of the country’s July 30 presidential election.
MDC vice president Morgen Komichi declared Chamisa “duly bestowed as a president of Zimbabwe” before a packed sports stadium in Harare’s Highfield high-density suburb where the party was holding its 19th anniversary.
The move infuriated the ruling Zanu PF party, which described Chamisa’s inauguration as treasonous, noting that Mnangagwa was the democratically-elected president of Zimbabwe.
In a unanimous ruling in August, nine judges of the Constitutional Court led by Chief Justice Malaba said Chamisa failed to prove allegations of electoral fraud in the presidential election.
Section 94 of Zimbabwe’s Constitution stipulates that persons elected as president and vice-presidents assume office when they take, before the Chief Justice or the next most senior judge available, the oaths of president and vice-president on the ninth day after they are declared to be elected; or in the event of a challenge to the validity of their election, within 48 hours after the Constitutional Court has declared them to be the winners. Mnangagwa was inaugurated in line with these provisions of the Constitution.
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