CCC hits voters roll brick wall

OPPOSITION Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has approached the High Court, seeking audience with Justice Never Chitiyo after he ruled that the party's urgent application for an interdict to compel the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to avail the final voters roll was not urgent.

Zimbabwe holds its general elections on Wednesday next week.

In the urgent application, CCC and its secretary for elections Ian Makone, who are the applicants, argued that Zec had furnished its candidates with a voters roll whose details did not match information published by the commission.

CCC cited Zec, its chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba and chief elections officer Utloile Silaigwana as respondents in the matter.

In his founding affidavit, Makone argues that CCC had written to Zec several times complaining that its candidates had not been provided with the voters roll to be used in the August 23 polls, but the electoral body did not respond.

According to documents filed at the High Court recently, CCC wrote four times this year to Zec complaining about the voters roll on July 14, August 3, August 8, and August 10.

In the application, through his lawyer Douglas Coltart of Mtetwa and Nyambira, Makone cited various irregularities on the voters roll, which include that names of polling stations published by Zec were not the same as those on the voters roll provided to party candidates.

Makone also argued that the list of polling stations availed to CCC candidates is not complete, adding that the number of polling stations on the voters roll was different from those published by Zec.

"The matter is extremely urgent because the August 23, 2023 elections are only a matter of days away. It is essential that we be provided with an up-to-date voters roll, a final list of polling stations and complete information about polling stations well in advance of that election.

"We are entitled to those documents by law and their provision is essential for a transparent and credible election. If the relief sought is only granted after elections, irreparable damage will be already done," he further argued.

Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday, Coltart told NewsDay that Katiyo had ruled that the matter was not urgent, which prompted the request for an urgent audience with the presiding judge.

"This means the matter has been removed from the urgent roll and could be heard even sometime after the elections, even next year," Coltart said.

"We have, however, written to the High Court seeking an audience with the judge for him to explain why he thinks our matter is not urgent."