Opinion / Columnist
ZEC lawyer sought to mislead the court on submission of documents?
20 Jul 2023 at 12:53hrs | Views
In a surprising and misleading submission in the Bulawayo High Court hearing today in the case of registered voters who are seeking the nullification of CCC and other National Assembly candidates on grounds that they illegally submitted their nomination papers out of time, including on 22 June 2023 which was not a nomination day, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) lawyer Tawanda Kanengoni is reported by Citezw to have made the following strange submission:
"ZEC lawyer Tawanda Kanengoni : if you look at the times in that submission document, the times are not chronological - it was not a document intended to record the chronological time events as the candidates were submitting. It does not record that chronology as cited by the applicants. How do you explain that if you argue that the document was a time sequence of submissions"?
This is surprising and misleading because it is a no brainer that the ZEC "submission document" is organised and presented in the alphabetical order of constituencies in Bulawayo province, and that the chronology of the submission of nomination papers by the candidates is accordingly embedded in each constituency based on the time that the listed candidates submitted their nomination papers.
ZEC does not organise anything in chronological order, but because it deals with candidates, political parties and electoral centres like polling stations, wards, districts, constituencies and province; ZEC typically organises and presents its data in the relevant alphabetical order.
It just takes one look to realise that - like the nomination list gazetted on 30 June 2023 - the "submission document" in question is organised and presented in the alphabetical order of the constituencies in Bulawayo province, starting with Bulawayo Central constituency and ending with Pumula constituency.
The names of the nominated candidates are listed in alphabetical order under their constituencies which are in alphabetical order, and the details in the listing start with the time of the submission of the nomination papers by the candidates; followed by the name of Bulawayo province; the name of the district, the name of the constituency; the gender of the candidate, the date of birth of the candidate and the political party of the candidate.
There is no candidate listed in the submission document with no indication of the time they submitted their nomination papers. None.
The submission times entered in the "submission document" start from 10:35 am on 21 June 2023 [Sihle Muzenda, Mpopoma/Mzilikazi constituency] to 1: 00 am on 22 June 2023 [Gift Siziva, Pelandaba/Tshabalala constituency].
The submission time for every candidate who submitted his or her nomination paper - not only those who submitted out of time but every candidate - is clearly entered, and the times fall between 10:35 am and on 21 June 2023, and 1:00 am on 22 June 2023. A sequence of these times is very easy to identify and discern.
In the circumstances, it is shocking that Mr Kanengoni did not understand this, and that in the result, he sought to mislead the court!
"ZEC lawyer Tawanda Kanengoni : if you look at the times in that submission document, the times are not chronological - it was not a document intended to record the chronological time events as the candidates were submitting. It does not record that chronology as cited by the applicants. How do you explain that if you argue that the document was a time sequence of submissions"?
This is surprising and misleading because it is a no brainer that the ZEC "submission document" is organised and presented in the alphabetical order of constituencies in Bulawayo province, and that the chronology of the submission of nomination papers by the candidates is accordingly embedded in each constituency based on the time that the listed candidates submitted their nomination papers.
ZEC does not organise anything in chronological order, but because it deals with candidates, political parties and electoral centres like polling stations, wards, districts, constituencies and province; ZEC typically organises and presents its data in the relevant alphabetical order.
It just takes one look to realise that - like the nomination list gazetted on 30 June 2023 - the "submission document" in question is organised and presented in the alphabetical order of the constituencies in Bulawayo province, starting with Bulawayo Central constituency and ending with Pumula constituency.
There is no candidate listed in the submission document with no indication of the time they submitted their nomination papers. None.
The submission times entered in the "submission document" start from 10:35 am on 21 June 2023 [Sihle Muzenda, Mpopoma/Mzilikazi constituency] to 1: 00 am on 22 June 2023 [Gift Siziva, Pelandaba/Tshabalala constituency].
The submission time for every candidate who submitted his or her nomination paper - not only those who submitted out of time but every candidate - is clearly entered, and the times fall between 10:35 am and on 21 June 2023, and 1:00 am on 22 June 2023. A sequence of these times is very easy to identify and discern.
In the circumstances, it is shocking that Mr Kanengoni did not understand this, and that in the result, he sought to mislead the court!
Source - Twitter
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