News / National
Dabengwa set to drag Zec to court over the voters' roll
11 Aug 2013 at 20:19hrs | Views
Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa plans to take the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to court for failing to furnish the party with a copy of the voters' roll.
Dabengwa who contested in the just-ended elections where Zanu PF claimed a landslide victory, accused the electoral body and the Registrar General's (RG) office institutions of conniving to deny him access to the voters' roll.
The former Zanu PF politburo member approached Zec to get a copy of the voters' roll but he was referred to Registrar General's office which also failed to furnish him with the roll.
Tobaiwa Mudede's office said they were experiencing technical difficulties with their machinery hence they could not make the voters' roll available.
Dabengwa now says he will take Zec to court for violating the Electoral Act.
"I have not been given access to the voters' roll as a candidate in the just ended elections and I have made several attempts to get both the hard and electronic copies but to no avail," Dabengwa said.
The former Home Affairs minister said this was not the first time his party had been denied access to the voters' roll.
"Our lawyers are handling the matter with a view of taking Zec to court should they continue to engage us in this cat and mouse game. You will remember that during the referendum, we only got it after we threatened to approach the courts," he said.
Zapu said the July 31 plebiscite was neither free, fair nor credible.
"Peaceful as it may seem, Zapu has noted that these elections were not free, fair and credible. Zapu has noted some irregularities and illegalities in the way these elections were held. It has also noted that the whole electoral process was flawed and as such the leadership and its legal advisers are working on challenging this outcome," the political party said in a statement.
Other presidential candidates who lost to the 89-year-old Mugabe include outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube and they have all cried foul over failure by Zec to avail the voters' roll to them in line with Section 21, Subsection 6(a) of the Electoral Act which states that: "Within a reasonable period of time after nomination day, the Commission shall provide free of charge, to every nominated candidate, one copy in electronic form, of the constituency voters' roll to be used in the election for which the candidate has been nominated".
Mugabe received 61 percent of the total votes cast while Tsvangirai, Ncube and Dabengwa polled 34.9 percent, 2.68 percent and 0.74 percent respectively.
Dabengwa who contested in the just-ended elections where Zanu PF claimed a landslide victory, accused the electoral body and the Registrar General's (RG) office institutions of conniving to deny him access to the voters' roll.
The former Zanu PF politburo member approached Zec to get a copy of the voters' roll but he was referred to Registrar General's office which also failed to furnish him with the roll.
Tobaiwa Mudede's office said they were experiencing technical difficulties with their machinery hence they could not make the voters' roll available.
Dabengwa now says he will take Zec to court for violating the Electoral Act.
"I have not been given access to the voters' roll as a candidate in the just ended elections and I have made several attempts to get both the hard and electronic copies but to no avail," Dabengwa said.
The former Home Affairs minister said this was not the first time his party had been denied access to the voters' roll.
"Our lawyers are handling the matter with a view of taking Zec to court should they continue to engage us in this cat and mouse game. You will remember that during the referendum, we only got it after we threatened to approach the courts," he said.
Zapu said the July 31 plebiscite was neither free, fair nor credible.
"Peaceful as it may seem, Zapu has noted that these elections were not free, fair and credible. Zapu has noted some irregularities and illegalities in the way these elections were held. It has also noted that the whole electoral process was flawed and as such the leadership and its legal advisers are working on challenging this outcome," the political party said in a statement.
Other presidential candidates who lost to the 89-year-old Mugabe include outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube and they have all cried foul over failure by Zec to avail the voters' roll to them in line with Section 21, Subsection 6(a) of the Electoral Act which states that: "Within a reasonable period of time after nomination day, the Commission shall provide free of charge, to every nominated candidate, one copy in electronic form, of the constituency voters' roll to be used in the election for which the candidate has been nominated".
Mugabe received 61 percent of the total votes cast while Tsvangirai, Ncube and Dabengwa polled 34.9 percent, 2.68 percent and 0.74 percent respectively.
Source - daily news
