Opposition howlers presents Zanu-PF with an early election advantage

Lawfare and slip-ups by the opposition in Zimbabwe are presenting Zanu-PF with an early advantage ahead of the 23 August general elections.

Already, Zanu-PF is uncontested in 53 local council authorities where the opposition failed to field candidates.

The party's national political commissar, Mike Bhima, told News24: "So far, so good. We're leading all the way."

The MDC Alliance, led by Douglas Mwonzora, did not field candidates in all constituencies after it failed to pay the candidate nomination fees.

Thereafter, the party filed a case at the Constitutional court, where Justice Webster Chinamora ruled "the nomination papers were not in order by virtue of the failure to pay the nomination fees".

Nomination fees for parliamentary candidates were pegged at R18 300 (US$1000) while the presidential fee is R366 000 (US$20 000).

Zanu-PF paid for all its candidates, while Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidates raised theirs.

Zanu-PF said those who failed to pay the nomination fees had no business running a country.

Mwonzora told the media he failed to pay nomination fees for his candidates because the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) payment platform was down.

But he managed to pay his fees for the presidential election.

This leaves Zanu-PF to face off against the CCC in most of the parliamentary seats.

If Zanu-PF has its way, the CCC's parliamentary candidates could be disqualified in Bulawayo – one of its strongholds.

Zanu-PF's finance secretary, Patrick Chinamasa, said the ruling party would seek to have 15 CCC candidates disqualified because they were not in court with signed nomination papers and nomination fees by the time the Nomination Court closed at 16:00 on 21 June.

Zanu-PF compiled a timeline that showed the 15 candidates arriving at the Nomination Court between 17:00 and midnight.

The CCC's lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, said in a tweet Zanu-PF was using a strategy that fell flat last week in Harare at the Nomination Court when the ZEC intended to disqualify CCC's candidates.

He added it was the same argument he forwarded to the legal team in Bulawayo to allow the CCC candidates to file their papers.

Mpofu said the public should "take note of the chosen route [courts]" by Zanu-PF to discredit the CCC.

Presidential aspirant Savior Kasukuwere, a former senior Zanu-PF candidate, was also challenged by Zanu-PF activist Lovedale Mangwana in court.

His argument is that Kasukuwere had been out of the country for more than 18 months.

High Court judge Justice David Mangota has since deferred the case to 12 July.

Kasukuwere also has two warrants of arrest hanging over him.

The first was for absconding court in 2019, facing four charges of abuse of office when he was minister of local government, public works and national housing in the late Robert Mugabe's Cabinet.

But the State proceeded to confiscate a mansion in Inyanga belonging to him.

The other warrant of arrest was for Kasukuwere's failure to surrender his passport to the clerk of court after travelling out of the country.

His team argued it was all part of threats to keep him away from coming into the country to contest for the presidency.