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to the Constitutional Court entreating it to ignore the one filed by Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Tuesday seeking an extension of the poll date from July 31 to August 14.
The move which dovetails with the party’s Election Litigation Strategy to increase the workload of the Constitutional Court to prevent it from dealing with matters on time, appears to be aimed at subverting the holding of polls even by August 14 should the relief sought by Minister Chinamasa be granted.
MDC-T and its allies in the NGO sector and legal fraternity met in the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights boardroom on June 3 and resolved to launch a sustained assault on the Judiciary, with a view to discrediting the Constitutional Court judgment that harmonised elections be held by July 31.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora said his party wanted to stop the Constitutional Court from dealing with the application Minister Chinamasa filed, alleging that it was made unilaterally without the input of other parties in the inclusive Government.
The extraordinary Sadc Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, last weekend specifically tasked Minister Chinamasa to approach the Constitutional Court on behalf of Government, which Government is made up of the three GPA parties —Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC.
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Mr Mwonzora, who appeared oblivious to the fact that the application was filed on behalf of Government, insisted Minister Chinamasa should have made the application on behalf of all principals in the inclusive Government and not President Mugabe alone.
“In that application, he made Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Minister Welshman Ncube the respondents yet they were supposed to be co-applicants with President Mugabe.
“By Thursday, we would have approached the court with PM Tsvangirai’s affidavit putting our facts straight so that it is the inclusive Government approaching the court and not one party,” he said.
However, President Mugabe, who has since complied with the court ruling being challenged by the MDC formations, is not even cited in the appeal lodged by Minister Chinamasa which lists Mr Jealousy Mawarire of the Centre for Elections and Democracy (who obtained the order for the July 31 deadline), Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube and the Attorney-General as respondents.
When he filed the application with the Constitutional Court, Minister Chinamasa said he had been specifically directed to make an application for extension of poll dates.
“During proceedings at the said summit, I, particularly, was directed to make an urgent application before this Honorable Court . . .,” he said.
Mr Mwonzora alleges that the application that Minister Chinamasa made was deliberately meant to fail so that elections are held on June 31 as Zanu PF has always wanted.
In recommending that an extension of the poll dates be sought, Sadc, however, acknowledged that it was up to the Constitutional Court to grant or throw out the application and that whatever decision it made was to bind all the parties.
Mwonzora accused Chinamasa of wording the application in a way that the Supreme Court would not rule in favour of the parties.
“The application was done without consulting the other parties in Government. It was filed with the intention that it should fail.
“Chinamasa should have consulted other parties as he was mandated by Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting,” he said.
President Robert Mugabe proclaimed July 31 2013 as the date for holding harmonised elections in compliance with the Constitutional Court ruling which compelled him to proclaim dates for polls, which would be held on or before July 31 this year.
The MDC-T has been demanding that the harmonized elections be pushed to October this year to allow for implementation of certain reforms.
Analysts have described the demands as a ploy to buy time to organize the party and mobilize support following the wane in its fortunes due to its failure to articulate policies and programmes.
President Mugabe is on record demanding early elections to end the coalition Government formed in the wake of the hung parliament emanating from the last harmonised elections. – New Ziana-HR
Online Reporter