adminJudge President Justice George Chiweshe yesterday threw out the MDC-T application that queried the number of police officers who cast their ballots during the two-day special vote that took place on Sunday and Monday this week.
Justice Chiweshe did not give reasons for his decision saying they will be made available in due course.
MDC-T lawyer Mr Harrison Nkomo of Mtetwa and Nyambirai law firm confirmed the court’s ruling on the matter.
“The MDC-T application was dismissed with costs and reasons will follow in due course,” said Mr Nkomo.
The MDC-T had approached the higher court seeking to nullify the special vote arguing that the number of voters for police officers was grossly inflated.
The party wanted to stop the special votes, claiming that the 69 000 police officers approved to cast their vote ballots during the two-day period exceeded the 44 113 shown on a Ministry of Finance salary schedule for the force.
Members of the disciplined forces voted during the two-day period under the Special Vote but only 29 000 people out of the 69 000 that had been approved to vote were able to cast their ballots.
On Thursday President Mugabe told a Zanu-PF rally in Chinhoyi that Government would look into the issue in an effort to address the process that was marred by late delivery or non-delivery of ballots at most centres.
Under the Special Vote the eligible members cast their ballots at the various places they are stationed.
The ballots will then be transmitted to the areas that they registered in and will be counted together with those that will be cast on July 31.
Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa also castigated the special vote as a flawed polling mechanism saying Zanu-PF will remove it from the country’s statutes if elected into Government.
He blamed the chaotic process of the special poll on negotiators in the inclusive Government should take the blame after they agreed to include the mechanism through amendments to the Electoral Act last year.
Minister Chinamasa said: “All in all I think that Zec did well in the circumstances. I would like to put the blame squarely on the flawed legal architecture of the Special Vote and for that flawed legal architecture on the Special Vote the blame should be put squarely on the negotiators, including myself, who negotiated this mechanism.”
Prior to the adoption of the Special Vote, members of the police and other uniformed forces involved in security operations during the elections would vote through the Postal Vote but the MDC formations raised issues about its transparency.
Online Reporter