Mliswa goes to court to challenge Zanu-PF victory

TEMBA Mliswa, who contested as an independent candidate and lost in the Hurunwge West by-election, is today expected to approach the Electoral Court challenging the victory of Zanu-PF's Keith Guzah, who was barred from voting because his name was not on the constituency voters' roll.

Guzah polled 5,961 votes against Mliswa's 4,239 in a hotly contested by-election on June 10 this year.

Mliswa's lawyer Msindo Hungwe, yesterday said they were ready to challenge Guzah's victory at the Electoral Court. "We believe that our legal argument is unassailable," said Hungwe.

"We're filing our petition first thing in the morning tomorrow (today).

"For the finer details of what is contained in the petition, the world has to wait for the filed copy."

Mliswa's lawyers have instructed Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara to argue the petition.

The move to challenge Guzah's victory comes after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Monday made attempts to clear the air on its alleged bungling in the Hurungwe by-election.

ZEC declared that Guzah was lawfully and procedurally nominated as a candidate for the Hurungwe West by-election although he failed to cast his ballot in the polls conducted on June 10.

It emerged that Guzah did not vote because his name was not yet appearing on the Hurungwe West constituency voters' roll after he transferred his voting registration from Magunje constituency.

ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said notwithstanding that he had transferred his registration as a voter to Hurungwe West, Guzah's name was not electronically updated on the voters' roll for that constituency because of a transposition of the block numbers relating to his old and new registrations.

"His old block number was captured as his new block number and the transfer was therefore not effected on the computer," said Justice Makarau.

In line with the ZEC's policy to avoid counterfeit slips, Guzah was denied the right to vote in the by-elections.

Justice Makarau challenged anyone with evidence that Guzah voted to approach the electoral body for further investigations.

Reports in sections of the private media claimed that the electoral body accepted Guzah's nomination papers without verifying.

However, Justice Makarau said the Zanu-PF candidate's nomination was qualified based on his transfer whose V3 form was there for inspection by anyone.