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Fidelis Munyoro, Harare Bureau
The Supreme Court has reinstated on the ballot for the National Assembly the 12 Bulawayo CCC candidates disqualified by the High Court from contesting the August 23 election, demonstrating that the courts are not “captured” as claimed by opposition political parties.
The reasons for the decision by the Supreme Court will be given later but the legal team of the 12 had based its argument that the wrong court had been approached to nullify the nominations for being out of time. They had argued that the objectors should have gone to the Electoral Court, rather than bring a civil suit in the High Court, although the electoral courts for Parliamentary seats are also presided over by a High Court judge.
The 12 candidates had been disqualified for allegedly filing their nomination papers out of time. The appeal bench of three judges granted the appeal by the 12 CCC aspiring Bulawayo National Assembly candidates in a unanimous decision, finding merit in the appeal.
The CCC disorganisation can still harm the party. There are eight National Assembly seats in Bulawayo but in four of these there are two CCC candidates splitting the Parliamentary votes of party supporters. The winning candidate is the one with the most votes, and does not have to gain 50 percent of the votes cast, just more than any other candidate.
The appeal court led by judge, Justice Tendai Uchena nullified the High Court decision stating that full reasons for the court’s judgment would be made available in due course. The judgment set aside the High court judgment.
The latest court ruling reinforces President Mnangagwa’s denial that Government interferes with the work of the Judiciary, and those accusing it of having a hand in recent court rulings were clearly ignorant.
Last week, the President told the media on arrival from Russia, where he was attending the Second Summit of the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, that he was not in any way involved in any election-related court dispute.
“They should go and recover their school fees from where they went to school,” he said. “I am nowhere near the court. I have never taken anybody to court, so if they are making such allegations, it means they do not have much education.”
The appeal by the 12 CCC candidates came after Justice Bongani Ndlovu sitting at High Court in Bulawayo last week barred the candidates after another voter approached the court in a civil suit accusing them of filing their nomination papers after 4pm with the ZEC exceeding its discretionary powers by adjourning the court to the next day.
Justice Ndlovu, in his judgment, also ordered the ZEC to exclude the names of the aspiring candidates in the ballot papers.
The Nomination Court sat on June 21 to accept papers from aspiring candidates in Bulawayo Metropolitan, but then sat again the next day to accommodate aspiring candidates who had failed to file their papers on time.
Six other candidates from Zapu, Free Zim Congress and ZANC who also submitted their papers after the 4pm deadline and were also disqualified — are also back on the ballot.
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