BULAWAYO – The Electoral Court will on Wednesday hear a dozen applications filed by Zanu PF activists seeking to have all Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP candidates in Bulawayo disqualified from August 23’s elections.
The court ordered the 12 applications, filed simultaneously, to be consolidated due to similar facts.
The Zanu PF activists, who only describe themselves as “registered voters”, are arguing that the CCC, other opposition parties and independents filed their nomination papers after the regulated time of 4PM on June 21 and should not be allowed to contest.
If the applications succeed, Zanu PF could win all 12 National Assembly seats in Bulawayo unopposed which would be a bitter blow to the main opposition which holds 11 of the 12. The 12th, held by Raj Modi in Bulawayo South, was won by Zanu PF in 2018 after the MDC Alliance fielded double candidates and split its vote.
The CCC argues that all its candidates in Bulawayo filed their papers by 4PM, but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission asked the candidates to correct some signature anomaly on the forms. They were ready to file the corrected forms by 4PM, and were present at the Nomination Court, but ZEC was now assisting other candidates, the party argues. The process ran into the small hours of June 22.
The CCC, meanwhile, has its own application filed by the 10 candidates for the Provincial Council who were disqualified. The candidates say in a court filing that their papers were delivered to ZEC before 4PM, but the nomination papers appear to have suddenly vanished while in the court’s custody.
