By Staff Reporter

MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa has further hired Kenyan and Zambian lawyers in attempts to reinforce his bid to seek the overturn of the July 30 presidential elections won by Emmerson Mnangagwa.

His spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda confirmed Friday the losing presidential candidate was looking beyond the country’s borders for the best legal brains to help his cause.

“We are leaving nothing to chance. As we speak, some of our lawyers from South Africa have arrived. Advocates Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi are already in the country.

“We are also expecting top lawyers from Kenya as well as Zambia,” Sibanda said.

In the election, Chamisa polled 44,3 percent of the national vote while Mnangagwa was declared winner with 50,8 percent of the share.

However, the 40-year-old politician has disputed the results describing them as “fake”.

He accuses the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of colluding with Mnangagwa to deny him what he claims was his clear victory.

He has since filed his poll challenge with the Constitutional Court with the hearing of the high-profile matter set for this coming Wednesday.

His legal team hired from Kenya will likely provide interesting insights after the Kenyan Constitutional Court last year overturned the results of that country’s presidential election in a African landmark ruling which followed a court challenge by opposition chief, Raila Odinga.

Odinga has close ties with Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC Alliance.

Following the court challenge by Chamisa, Mnangagwa and ZEC lawyers have since filed their opposing papers.

But there is strong feeling by the opposition the incumbent was fighting hard to poke holes into the challenge through identifying technical faults as opposed to detail.

Sibanda said Chamisa’s lawyers have been “shocked” by the response from both Mnangagwa and ZEC lawyers.

“There is a sense that Mnangagwa and his team want to avoid a full hearing of the case and turn to technicalities,” he said.

“We would have thought given that they claim to have won with such a slim majority, a full hearing would afford them a chance to build their tattered credibility and give Mnangagwa the legitimacy he so badly needs by defending the numbers they got in the election.”