admin
Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
MDC-T yesterday withdrew seven more National Assembly election petitions while the court dismissed one, a development that left only 11 petitions pending. On Monday two cases were dismissed while last week one was thrown out for failure by the opposition party’s losing candidates to comply with the rules of the Electoral Court.
In October MDC-T dropped 17 other cases upon realising that they had failed to comply with the rules.
In the latest withdrawals, MDC-T lawyers informed the court that they were no longer pursuing the petitions after reading an earlier judgment granted against Ms Tracy Mutinhiri (Marondera East) and Mr Wilson Makanyaire (Hurungwe West) on Monday.
According to the judgment, the Electoral Court rules require that once a petitioner names a person as having engaged in corrupt or illegal practices, he or she is obliged to give the full name and address of the person guilty of such conduct and serve a copy on that person so that he could respond.
In all the withdrawn cases, the petitioners accused individuals and most of the traditional leaders in their respective constituencies of engaging electoral malpractices without giving them a chance to be heard.
The seven petitions dropped yesterday did not meet the standards hence they were withdrawn with costs.
Justice Bhunu ruled that it would be unjust for petitioners to assert their right to be heard while denying others the same right by omission.
The same court last week dismissed an election petition by MDC-T losing candidate for Goromonzi North Mr Ian Makone, who was challenging the election of Cde Beatrice Beata Nyamupinga, while 17 other MDC-T candidates have since dropped their petitions.
MDC-T filed 95 petitions just after the harmonised elections challenging the poll results in their respective constituencies countrywide, but party failed to raise the US$10 000 security for costs in respect of all and successfully paid for 39.
Of these, 28 have already fallen away either through withdrawals or dismissal by the court, leaving the judge to deal with 11 petitions only.
Online Reporter