HARARE – The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has announced it is dumping 222,550 ballot papers bearing the names of CCC candidates now barred from participating in the December 9 by-elections.
This follows a Thursday High Court ruling granting Sengezo Tshabangu’s bid to block the recalled legislators from contesting the poll.
Tshabangu, who styles himself as CCC interim secretary general, issued recalls on 14 party lower house legislators and eight senators early October on the ostensible reason they had ceased to be members of the main opposition.
The recalls were followed by a presidential proclamation for the holding of by-elections this Saturday.
In a defiant stance, recalled MPs successfully filed for nomination under CCC, a decision that was appealed at the High Court by Tshabangu leading to Thursday’s ruling.
Following the ruling by Justice Never Katiyo, ZEC has since indicated it was withdrawing the ballot papers and further disqualifying the legislators.
ZEC had printed 266,150 for the National Assembly by-elections.
ZEC chief elections officer Utloile Silaigwana announced in a statement the opposition politicians were nolonger candidates in the December 9 polls after being disqualified.
“Consequently, the said members are not candidates for the by-elections to be held on 9 December 2023.
“In terms of the court order, the Commission has been ordered not to include the names of the said persons in the preparation of ballot papers to be used in the by-elections.
“The Commission is thus withdrawing all ballot papers that had been printed and distributed to respective constituencies and will reprint and distribute ballots that are in compliance with the court order.”
