adminParties quarrel over Electoral Act
Herald Reporters
PARTIES in the inclusive Government are not agreed on how the next election will be conducted, differences that have stalled the Electoral Amendment Bill.
The differences on the Bill are on the set up of polling stations, with Zanu-PF calling for a voters’ roll based on a particular polling station.
On the other hand, the MDC-T wants the ward-based voters’ roll to be retained.
There is now a possibility that the next election could be held without the amended Electoral Act.
Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday said differences on the Bill had emerged, despite the fact that the Bill had been negotiated.
“There is now a tug of war on an issue that we had already agreed as parties,” Minister Chinamasa said.
“We had agreed that we will have a polling station-specific voters’ roll, but our friends in the MDC-T are now singing a different tune.”
Minister Chinamasa said the three parties in the inclusive Government had endorsed the proposed Bill during the negotiations and in Cabinet.
He said the rationale behind the polling station-specific voters’ roll was to get rid of double voting and ghost voters.
Lawyer delisted
Daniel Nemukuyu
Senior Court Reporter
A BULAWAYO lawyer has been delisted over improper conduct while seven others have their cases still pending before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
Mr Masimba Munjanja of Munjanja and Associates law firm in Bulawayo was delisted after he allegedly committed several cases involving abuse of trust funds and failure to properly represent clients among others.
Mr Munjanja’s delisting brings to five the number of lawyers struck off the register since last year.
High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, who chairs the tribunal last week ordered the deletion of Mr Munjanja’s name from the register of legal practitioners, notary publics and conveyancers in Zimbabwe.
The disciplinary hearing for Mr Munjanja had been set for last week in Justice Bhunu’s chambers, but an order was issued after Mr Munjanja chose not to oppose the matter.
He had initially filed a notice of opposition, but decided against it and issued a consent notice shortly before the hearing date.
Barclays moves to repair ‘devastating blow’ to reputation
LONDON — Barclays chairman Mr Marcus Agius resigned yesterday over interest rate rigging as the bank faced possible criminal prosecution in a scandal that has sullied London’s image as a financial centre.
The beleaguered bank announced his departure, and promised an independent audit, amid questions about the future of its chief executive Mr Bob Diamond and generally about morality in London’s financial sector.
Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said it was considering whether it was “both appropriate and possible to bring criminal prosecutions” over the issue, adding that it hoped to come to a conclusion within a month.
British finance minister George Osborne was set to address parliament on the matter at the time of going to press.
The manipulation of interest rates, which may turn out to implicate some other international banks, concerned the Libor and Euribor rates which play a key role on global markets, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow.
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