adminhe was withdrawing his application because it has been overtaken by events.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku and eight other judges presiding over the case at the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe yesterday agreed with the lawyers’ new position on the matter and ordered Mr Mawere to bear the cost of suit.
Mr Mawere, who cited the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Registrar General’s Office, President Mugabe and Attorney General, was claiming that he was unlawfully denied Zimbabwean citizenship to enable him to exercise his political rights.
To this end, he wanted an order to grant him and anyone else previously excluded from the nomination process until June 26 to be granted seven days from the date of the order to prepare nomination papers for political office ahead of the July 31 elections.
He had requested that Zec and RG’s Office compelled to constitute a special nomination court at the High Court before July 12 for purposes of reviewing and considering nomination papers filed by him or anyone else in his circumstances.
The businessman was also demanding President Mugabe to issue a proclamation consistent with the nomination court.
Last month Mr Mawere won a landmark ruling on dual citizenship after the same court granted his application seeking restoration of his Zimbabwean citizenship.
He had approached the country’s apex court after Registrar General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede refused his citizenship application arguing that the former SMM Holdings owner had to renounce his South African citizenship before he could apply for identification documents and a passport.
The Constitutional Court, however, allowed Mr Mawere’s application after the RG’s lawyers conceded that, in terms of the new Constitution, there was no reason to deny the businessman the relief he sought.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court dismissed a case in which aspiring councillor Mr Pushie-Bar Bere was seeking to be allowed to contest as a councillor.
“Applicant was supposed to have directed the matter to the Electoral Court within four days of the nomination’s court sitting,” Chief Justice Chidyausiku said dismissing the application.
Mr Bere had approached the court claiming that he went to Zec with full requirements save for a missing passport size photo and was ordered by the presiding officer at the nomination court to go and collect it and submit his papers before the deadline at 1600 hours.
When he returned and tried to submitted the passport size photo, he was told that all his other papers were missing and therefore barred from contesting.
The court also dealt with the case in which a Harare man Mr Ignatius Masamba was seeking to contest as an independent presidential candidate.
His case was dismissed on the basis that there was no cause of action.
Online Reporter