adminFidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Former zanu-pf Politburo member Kudakwashe Bhasikiti’s urgent chamber application to bar President Mugabe from calling a by-election in his Mwenezi East constituency will be heard this Friday at the Constitutional Court.
His fresh appeal challenging a High Court decision which threw out his review application on a related matter is also slated for the same day in the Supreme Court.
President Mugabe’s lawyer, Mr Terence Hussein of Hussein, Ranchhod and Company, yesterday confirmed the matters had been set down for hearing on Friday.
“We were all requested to file our papers by Thursday on both matters,” said Mr Hussein, without giving further details of the developments.
Bhasikiti was expelled from the revolutionary party and subsequently recalled from Parliament as the Mwenezi East representative.
The urgent Constitutional Court application comes after President Mugabe proclaimed September 19 as the date for the Mwenezi East by-election. According to the proclamation, President Mugabe set July 20 as the date for the sitting of the nomination court for the Mwenezi East by-election.
Last month Bhasikiti won a High Court order barring the proclaiming of a by-election date for the constituency until the legislator’s case contesting his expulsion from zanu-pf was determined by the courts.
In his urgent application submitted at the Constitutional Court last week, President Mugabe is cited as the first respondent while the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is the second respondent. Bhasikiti said President Mugabe was in contempt of court. President Mugabe’s conduct, he said, breached a court order of June 25.
He said the proclamation of the by-election date prejudiced his rights to a fair trial as the matter was still to be concluded.
Online Reporter