adminInnocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
The Electoral Court is today expected hear the two urgent chamber applications by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai in which he is requesting several election records and information that he intends to use in the main election challenge filed at the Constitutional Court last Friday.Mr Tsvangirai, who lost the presidential election, filed the two applications amid reports that he was struggling to come up with evidence to back his claims of widespread rigging.
The same court is set to hear a related case in which MDC-T official Mr Jameson Timba is challenging the election in which he lost the Mount Pleasant National Assembly seat to Zanu-PF’s Cde Jason Passade.
Justice Chinembiri Bhunu is expected to hear the two applications in his chambers today.
The MDC-T leader is alleging rigging and he wants a review of the election. In one of the applications filed by Donsa-Nkomo and Mutangi Legal Practice, Mr Tsvangirai wants the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to be compelled to provide him with the specific number of spoilt ballots that were cast in the presidential election per constituency, number of assisted voters that cast their votes in the presidential poll per constituency and the specific number of voters that were turned away and failed to cast their ballot on polling day per constituency.
In the second application prepared by Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni legal practitioners, Mr Tsvangirai made a request for 14 different election records, including full Presidential results per constituency, copies of the voters’ roll used in all polling stations, copies of voters’ roll used in the special voting process on July 14 and 15 this year, the register of those who managed to cast their vote in the special voting process of July 14 and 15 among other things.
In the applications, Mr Tsvangirai argues that the material he required was in the custody of ZEC chief elections officer and that the sealed boxes could not be opened without a court order.
Another judge Justice Joseph Mafusire is expected to hear Mr Timba’s application seeking to invalidate the victory of Cde Passade.
In his application, Timba claims that ZEC issued conflicting results for Mt Pleasant.
He argues that at the constituency centre, ZEC allegedly announced 18,092 valid votes were cast, then at the national command centre, announced that only 12,165 valid votes were cast.
Online Reporter
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