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Zimbabwe Development Party sues Treasury for funding

by Court Reporter
08 Jun 2013 at 05:40hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Development Party has filed a lawsuit seeking an order to compel Treasury to release funding to political parties.

In a matter filed on Thursday at the Consitutional Court under case number CCZ27/13, ZDP represented by its president Mr Kisinoti Mukwazhe cites Ministers of Justice and Legal Affairs, Consitutional and Parliamentary and Finance as respondents.

The chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is cited as the fourth respondent.

Mr Mukwazhe says his party requires at least $1,5 million.

The papers state that the ZDP is a political party which contested in the 2008 general elections and would like to contest in the forthcoming elections.

"The applicant is not getting any funding to promote multi-party democracy to enable it to fully prepare and participate in the forthcoming general election. At the moment only political parties who garnered five percent or more of the total votes cast in the last recently held elections are being funded by the Treasury.

"The parties which are benefiting are having an unfair advantage over the applicant which is not accessing the funds for the purpose of preparing for the forthcoming elections," read part of the papers.

Mr Mukwazhe stated that his party had no access to material and information necessary to participate effectively which he said was prejudicing and creating an uneven playing field.

He mentioned that there were funds set aside for holding of elections and parties in the Global Political Agreement were set to benefit much to the prejudice of his party.

Source - herald