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Harare Bureau
MDC-T petitions are crumbling with seven more losing National Assembly candidates dropping their petitions in one day last week. The latest development brings to eight the total number of petitions withdrawn by the opposition party’s losing candidates so far.This leaves the Electoral Court to deal with only 31 petitions from a total of 39 that were accepted by the court after payment of security of costs fees of $10 000 each.
On Friday Oliver Kapepa who was contesting the election of Vice President Joice Mujuru as Member of the National Assembly for Mt Darwin West, Maxwell Mandimutsira who lost the Mazowe West seat to Cde Fortune Chasi, Macdonald Muchetwa who lost Marondera West seat to Cde Ambrose Mutinhiri, Antony Mutodza of Chikomba West, Rebecca Chavhunduka of Mt Darwin North, George Gwarada of Mazowe North and Nongera Gomorashe of Mbire withdrew their petitions from the Electoral Court.
Last month Davies Shoko who lost the Mberengwa South Constituency to Cde Chiratidzo Iris Mabuwa was the first to drop his challenge.
Over the past two months, MDC-T losing candidates made another U-turn that resulted in at least seven others withdrawing their petitions against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Zec is no longer a respondent in seven of the remaining petitions. This occurred after Zec raised an objection arguing that the law only provided for citation of the winning candidates only in the contested constituencies and that their citation was legally wrong.
Zec argued that it was a neutral commission and that if it is cited as a respondent it loses its independence in the electoral matters.
Initially, MDC-T filed 95 petitions at the Electoral Court and 56 were abandoned after the party chose to pay security of costs fees for only 39 petitions using an unclear criterion.
Cracks widened in MDC-T as it emerged that the party paid security for costs in respect of only 39 heavy weights while the other 56 petitions for the little-known and less powerful petitioners were abandoned.
The withdrawal of the seven cases came a day after the parties’ lawyers met with the registrar of the Electoral Court to decide on how the petitions should be dealt with.
The lawyers agreed that the court should start hearing the preliminary points raised by Zanu-PF winning candidates and Zec. The outcome of the preliminary issues would map the way forward in terms of the main petitions.
If the preliminary objects succeed that will be the end of the matter but if they are dismissed the trials will be conducted in relation to the main petitions.
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