Court ruling signals end of the road for Mutasa, Mliswa

The dismissal of Didymus Mutasa and Temba Mliswa's application against expulsion from Parliament by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) last week seems to imply that political parties have the power to expel their MPs from the House, political analysts have said.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku read the unanimous decision of the nine-member bench which dismissed the duo's application as "devoid of merit" and thus upheld the Speaker of Parliament's decision to declare the Headlands and Hurungwe seats vacant.

Mutasa and Mliswa, through their lawyer Lovemore Madhuku, had argued that the Speaker had acted unconstitutionally by declaring their seats vacant without hearing their side of the story in their dispute with Zanu-PF.

Madhuku said the Speaker had an obligation to certify himself of the facts before acting or alternatively referring the matter to courts if there was a dispute between the parties.

Political analyst Takura Zhangazha said political party leaders were elated by the decision of the Concourt.

"Leaders of political parties that are represented in Parliament are obviously feeling almost invincible vis-a-vis the decision," Zhangazha said.

"Unfortunately, the spring in their step after this decision by the ConCourt is symptomatic of a patent lack of intraparty democracy which unfortunately comes to negatively affect the already undemocratic national political environment."