News / National
MDC-T disqualifies late applications
16 Feb 2013 at 20:05hrs | Views
MDC-T has said all individuals interested in representing the party in this year's elections, who failed to submit their applications before the 31 January deadline, would be disqualified except in a few exceptional cases which are supported by valid reasons for the late submissions.
This directive is likely to affect a number of aspiring candidates in Bulawayo who submitted their applications on 5 February after there was a mix-up in the province with the provincial leadership initially saying the 31 Janaury deadline had been extended.
Confirming the recent developments, the party's national spokesperson, Mr Douglas Mwonzora, said members should have respected the deadline as it was binding and no one would get special treatment.
"The party put a deadline for all applications and this was 31 January, that deadline must be respected, only in exceptional circumstances will the election directorate consider late applications but we are insisting that this deadline is binding and no late application will be considered," said Mr Mwonzora.
Questioned on whether the directive would not be used as a means of shutting out aspiring candidates and imposing candidates on the electorate, he said as a party they had clear guidelines that had to be jealously adhered to.
"It is a straightforward matter, we set the deadline well in advance and everyone knew about it so I see nothing wrong with us insisting on this deadline," said the national spokesperson.
The Bulawayo provincial spokesperson, Mr Mandla Sibanda, confirmed that a number of applicants in the province had submitted late hence they resolved to collect the late entries and let the national executive have the final say.
"We realised that there were some people who failed to meet the 31 January deadline thus during an urgent provincial meeting last week we decided that we take all these applications to our head office and make them decide on what to do with them because at the end of the day we cannot stop our people from fulfilling their democratic right.
"What happened is we received the notice very late thus most of our members failed to submit by the said date," said Mr Sibanda.
He said there were various circumstances that contributed to the delay in submission, which saw in some cases aspiring candidates failing to get their papers signed by the district leadership.
Recent media reports suggested that the jostling for positions in the province had seen senior party officials allegedly blocking aspiring candidates from submitting their applications.
Aspiring candidates also complained that leaders at district level were refusing to endorse them.
This directive is likely to affect a number of aspiring candidates in Bulawayo who submitted their applications on 5 February after there was a mix-up in the province with the provincial leadership initially saying the 31 Janaury deadline had been extended.
Confirming the recent developments, the party's national spokesperson, Mr Douglas Mwonzora, said members should have respected the deadline as it was binding and no one would get special treatment.
"The party put a deadline for all applications and this was 31 January, that deadline must be respected, only in exceptional circumstances will the election directorate consider late applications but we are insisting that this deadline is binding and no late application will be considered," said Mr Mwonzora.
Questioned on whether the directive would not be used as a means of shutting out aspiring candidates and imposing candidates on the electorate, he said as a party they had clear guidelines that had to be jealously adhered to.
"It is a straightforward matter, we set the deadline well in advance and everyone knew about it so I see nothing wrong with us insisting on this deadline," said the national spokesperson.
"We realised that there were some people who failed to meet the 31 January deadline thus during an urgent provincial meeting last week we decided that we take all these applications to our head office and make them decide on what to do with them because at the end of the day we cannot stop our people from fulfilling their democratic right.
"What happened is we received the notice very late thus most of our members failed to submit by the said date," said Mr Sibanda.
He said there were various circumstances that contributed to the delay in submission, which saw in some cases aspiring candidates failing to get their papers signed by the district leadership.
Recent media reports suggested that the jostling for positions in the province had seen senior party officials allegedly blocking aspiring candidates from submitting their applications.
Aspiring candidates also complained that leaders at district level were refusing to endorse them.
Source - SN
