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when and how this year’s harmonised elections will be conducted.
Topping the list is the matter in which Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, on behalf of the Government, is seeking an extension of the election date from July 31 to August 14.
President Mugabe, in compliance with a judgment of the Constitutional Court delivered on May 31, proclaimed July 31 as the election date and June 28 as the date when the Nomination Court will sit.
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces also invoked the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to align the Electoral Act with the new Constitution.
MDC formations, that were not comfortable with the election date and the court ruling, lobbied Sadc to intervene.
Last Saturday, an extraordinary Sadc summit in Maputo, Mozambique, urged the Government, through Minister Chinamasa, to seek extension of the election dates.
Minister Chinamasa on Tuesday filed the constitutional application.
He also successfully applied that the same case be heard on an urgent basis.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku directed the registry to set the matter down for hearing on Wednesday, together with five other related cases.
The Constitutional Court will hear an application by businessman Mr Mutumwa Mawere in which he is seeking an order compelling the Registrar_General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede to give him identity documents and a Zimbabwean passport to enable him to vote in the forthcoming election.
The South Africa-based business mogul made an application to the Constitutional Court to stop the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission from conducting the voter registration exercise until the issue of the citizenship status of Zimbabwean-born persons who are holders of foreign citizenship by registration is clarified.
He claims he was denied a national identity card and passport by Mr Mudede, which he says was tantamount to denying him a right to vote.
Mr Mawere said he was turned down on the basis that dual citizenship was outlawed in Zimbabwe under the old Constitution.
In the application, Mr Mawere claims the new Constitution signed into law by President Mugabe last month provides for dual citizenship by descent.
He claims the RG had frustrated his efforts to assert his citizenship on the basis of an “erroneous interpretation and application of the law”.
Another Zimbabwean based in South Africa, Mr Tavengwa Bukaibenyu, is seeking an order allowing all Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to participate in the election the same way some diplomats and Government officials based in foreign countries do.
He claims to be a registered voter in Mabvuku and wants the Constitutional Court to declare as unconstitutional sections of the Electoral Act that deny foreign-based Zimbabweans the vote.
Mr Bukaibenyu argues that the Constitution allows everyone to vote, but the Electoral Act bars those who are not staying in their constituencies from participating in an election.
He argues that the section of the Electoral Act which only allows Government officials and diplomats to participate in postal voting and denying other foreign-based nationals was discriminatory and should be struck down.
The same court is expected to hear cases emanating from MDC-T’s Strategic Election Litigation, the first of which involves a Bulawayo woman Ms Maria Phiri who seeks an extension of the election date to a date after August 12.
Ms Phiri argues that proclamation of the nomination date and polling date must allow for a 30-day intensive voter registration period, which constitutionally began on May 23 the day after the publication of the new Constitution.
The woman, who until the new Constitution was regarded as an alien and unable to vote, also argues that former aliens have to acquire identity cards first and, therefore, cannot be able to immediately benefit in the 30-day voter registration exercise.
As such, she argues, polls could only be held after August 12.
The court is also set to hear an application by the Zimbabwe Development Party which wants to get funding for elections from the treasury.
Mr Kisinoti Mukwazhe, ZDP leader, says his party required US$1, 5 million but it was being denied funding on the basis that it did not garner five percent of House of Assembly seats as stipulated by the Political Parties Finance Act.
He argues that the decision infringed the party’s right to participate in the elections and it gives bigger parties an unfair advantage over smaller ones.
The other case involves Mr Nixon Nyikadzino who is also seeking an extension of the election date.
He says that given the short time that is left, elections cannot be held on July 31 without infringing on his rights.
Mr Nyikadzino argues that the time left is not enough to complete all the processes required for elections to be held by July 31 and that his right to a free and fair election would be infringed.
Online Reporter