HARARE – The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) on Saturday abandoned its plan to file a court challenge to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s re-election, raising concerns over biased judges.

The party is, instead, vowing to mount protests and also ramp up diplomatic pressure on Mnangagwa, who is entering his second and final five-year term.

The government said Mnangagwa would be inaugurated on Monday, with at least two presidents from South Africa and Mozambique expected to attend, according to government spokesman Ndavaningi Mangwana.

“When the court becomes so predictable in its bias that citizens feel no need to approach it for remedy, the court must begin to ask itself questions,” CCC spokesman Promise Mkwananzi said.

“Several of our court appeals meant to ensure that the election would not be disputed were turned down. Would the court be comfortable in being perceived as an appendage of a political party rather than a credible station of dispute resolution as enunciated by the constitution? It is our view in CCC that the court ought to extricate itself from this dangerous perception and uphold its independence and responsibility as encapsulated in our constitution.”

CCC leader Nelson Chamisa’s lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu, in a cryptic post on X which appeared directed at the courts, said: “Every village has a healer, but if the healer becomes bogus, the sick and the stricken will go to the next village in search of assistance…”

Judges were paid US$400,000 each just before the elections, payouts which the CCC said were bribes. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF party also amended the constitution to stop Chief Justice Luke Malaba from retiring after reaching the age of 70.

The CCC is demanding a rerun of the August 23 elections which have been condemned by foreign monitors, including the SADC election observer mission which said they failed to meet regional and international standards on democratic polls.

“It is now time write corrections by going back to the drawing board to start the process of conducting the election afresh, under the auspices of SADC and the African Union, with a credible electoral body other than ZEC and a reformed electoral environment,” Mkwananzi said.

Zanu PF has dismissed CCC demands for fresh elections.

Chamisa has deployed aides Jameson Timba and Gladys Hlatswayo to regional countries seeking support for fresh elections, but Zanu PF appears in no mood to go through another election.

Mnangagwa was declared the winner by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission with 52.6 percent of the vote, while Chamisa got 44 percent. CCC data analysts say the numbers are fictitious, although they are yet to publish their final tallies.

CCC has accused ZEC of suppressing the vote in areas where it polls well by delivering ballot papers 12 hours after polls opened. The election was also marred by widespread intimidation and the arrest of 41 independent election monitors who were conducting parallel voter tabulation.