News / National
MDC Alliance Parly candidate sues Zec over ballot anomaly
30 Jul 2018 at 07:10hrs | Views
MDC Alliance's Chipinge Central parliamentary candidate Livingstone Dhlumo has filed an urgent High Court application seeking to force Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to reprint ballot papers, claiming the ones in place are faulty, as they do not have his face.
Dhlumo, through his lawyer David Tandiri of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, approached the High Court on Friday, citing Zec and five other aspiring candidates as respondents.
He said Zec printed ballot papers which do not have his picture, unlike his other contestants.
"On July 26, 2018, all the candidates were requested by the Chipinge district elections officer to visit the district elections office to inspect the ballot papers," Dhlumo's founding affidavit read.
"When I perused through the ballot papers I noted that my face is not appearing on the ballot papers. The photograph which appears on the ballot papers is not mine. It is also blurred. It is difficult to recognise the person appearing on the photograph.
"I advised the district elections officer about the defect on the ballot papers. He advised me that he had noted the defect. He promised to refer the issue to the provincial elections officer in Mutare so that the defect can be rectified.
"On July 27, 2018, I visited the office of the district elections officer early in the morning to check whether the issue of the defective ballot papers had been attended to. He advised me that the issue was yet to be resolved. He requested me to visit the offices of the provincial elections officer in Mutare so that my issue could be attended to," Dhlumo said.
According to the court papers, the provincial elections officer did nothing to regularise the anomaly despite making promises, hence the move to approach the court on an urgent basis.
Dhlumo, through his lawyer David Tandiri of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, approached the High Court on Friday, citing Zec and five other aspiring candidates as respondents.
He said Zec printed ballot papers which do not have his picture, unlike his other contestants.
"On July 26, 2018, all the candidates were requested by the Chipinge district elections officer to visit the district elections office to inspect the ballot papers," Dhlumo's founding affidavit read.
"I advised the district elections officer about the defect on the ballot papers. He advised me that he had noted the defect. He promised to refer the issue to the provincial elections officer in Mutare so that the defect can be rectified.
"On July 27, 2018, I visited the office of the district elections officer early in the morning to check whether the issue of the defective ballot papers had been attended to. He advised me that the issue was yet to be resolved. He requested me to visit the offices of the provincial elections officer in Mutare so that my issue could be attended to," Dhlumo said.
According to the court papers, the provincial elections officer did nothing to regularise the anomaly despite making promises, hence the move to approach the court on an urgent basis.
Source - newsday
