News / National
MDC-T only left with nine electoral petitions
28 Nov 2013 at 02:28hrs | Views
MDC-T is only left with nine electoral petitions before the Electoral Court out of the 39 it filed after the July 31 harmonised elections and this follows the withdrawal of most of the cases for lack of evidence.
The cases which were dismissed by the court failed to pass the preliminary stage of the hearings.
The latest petition was dismissed yesterday in which Mr Wilbert Chimbetete was contesting the victory of Supa Mandiwanzira in the Nyanga South constituency.
This came as the opposition party's losing candidate for Kariba Mr Kudakwashe Mandishona dropped his petition against Zanu-PF's Isaac Mackenzie yesterday.
Indications are that the remaining petitions would face the same fate since they are built on the same procedural irregularity of failing to comply with the rules of the court.
In the recent petitions of the MDC-T losing candidates Ms Tracy Mutinhiri (Marondera East) and Mr Wilson Makanyaire (Hurungwe West), Justice Bhunu held that failure to comply with the mandatory provisions of rule 21(F) of the court was fatal to the petitioner's case.
The rules require that once a petitioner names a person as having engaged in corrupt or illegal practices, he or she is obliged to give the full name and address of the person guilty of such conduct and serve a copy on that person so that he could respond.
The petitioners in all the cases accused individuals and most of the traditional leaders in their respective constituencies of engaging in corrupt practices without giving them a chance to be heard.
What is means is that the petitioner should physically account for those who did not vote and show enough evidence that they did not do so.
In the petition by Chimbetete against Mandiwanzira yesterday, Justice Bhunu ruled that his view could not be divorced from the decision he made in the Mutinhiri petition.
"The result can not be different in this case which is on all fours with the Mutinhiri case," he said.
"Having come to that decision, it is not necessary to determine the remaining outstanding preliminary issues as this finally settles the case by rendering the petition a nullity."
Justice Bhunu declared Mandiwanzira the duly elected Member of National Assembly for Nyanga South.
On Tuesday, the MDC-T dropped seven election petitions, while the court dismissed one.
The same court had on Monday dismissed two cases, while last week one was thrown out for the same reasons of failure by the opposition party's losing candidates to comply with the rules of the Electoral Court.
In October, MDC-T dropped 17 other cases upon realising that they had failed to comply with the rules.
MDC-T filed 95 petitions just after the harmonised elections challenging the poll results in their respective constituencies countrywide, but the party failed to raise the $10 000 security costs in respect of all the petitions and ended up paying for only 39.
The cases which were dismissed by the court failed to pass the preliminary stage of the hearings.
The latest petition was dismissed yesterday in which Mr Wilbert Chimbetete was contesting the victory of Supa Mandiwanzira in the Nyanga South constituency.
This came as the opposition party's losing candidate for Kariba Mr Kudakwashe Mandishona dropped his petition against Zanu-PF's Isaac Mackenzie yesterday.
Indications are that the remaining petitions would face the same fate since they are built on the same procedural irregularity of failing to comply with the rules of the court.
In the recent petitions of the MDC-T losing candidates Ms Tracy Mutinhiri (Marondera East) and Mr Wilson Makanyaire (Hurungwe West), Justice Bhunu held that failure to comply with the mandatory provisions of rule 21(F) of the court was fatal to the petitioner's case.
The rules require that once a petitioner names a person as having engaged in corrupt or illegal practices, he or she is obliged to give the full name and address of the person guilty of such conduct and serve a copy on that person so that he could respond.
The petitioners in all the cases accused individuals and most of the traditional leaders in their respective constituencies of engaging in corrupt practices without giving them a chance to be heard.
What is means is that the petitioner should physically account for those who did not vote and show enough evidence that they did not do so.
In the petition by Chimbetete against Mandiwanzira yesterday, Justice Bhunu ruled that his view could not be divorced from the decision he made in the Mutinhiri petition.
"The result can not be different in this case which is on all fours with the Mutinhiri case," he said.
"Having come to that decision, it is not necessary to determine the remaining outstanding preliminary issues as this finally settles the case by rendering the petition a nullity."
Justice Bhunu declared Mandiwanzira the duly elected Member of National Assembly for Nyanga South.
On Tuesday, the MDC-T dropped seven election petitions, while the court dismissed one.
The same court had on Monday dismissed two cases, while last week one was thrown out for the same reasons of failure by the opposition party's losing candidates to comply with the rules of the Electoral Court.
In October, MDC-T dropped 17 other cases upon realising that they had failed to comply with the rules.
MDC-T filed 95 petitions just after the harmonised elections challenging the poll results in their respective constituencies countrywide, but the party failed to raise the $10 000 security costs in respect of all the petitions and ended up paying for only 39.
Source - herald
