Zimbabwe's MDC Alliance has hired a Maseno University statistician to help with its petition challenging Emmerson Mnangagwa's election.

Edgar Otumba Ouko was NASA's expert statistician in the August 2017 petition against Uhuru Kenyatta's election which the Supreme Court nullified.

The MDC, according to Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail, is expected to show alleged irregularities in the case by Nelson Chamisa against Mnangagwa.

The applied statistics professor is expected to justify the party's claims that the July 31 poll was rigged in favour of the incumbent.

But Mnangagwa's lawyers have dismissed Otumba's expertice in matters election.

The president's lawyers reportedly said the don's opinion should be treated as irrelevant and inadmissible.

"His documented research is on sugarcane and fish migration patterns."

"There are none on elections" the lawyers argued.