Nine days before the crucial election, Justice Katiyo on Monday ruled that the urgent application by the CCC demanding the final voters’ roll and final list of polling stations was not urgent. This prompted CCC lawyers led by Thabani Mpofu to seek audience of the court on the question of whether the case is urgent.
“We represent the Applicants in the above mentioned matter,” read their letter to the Electoral Court.
“We received a telephone call from the Deputy Registrar at 12:31 pm on 14th August 2023 advising that the above mentioned matter had been placed before the Honourable Justice Katiyo who directed that the matter be deemed “Not Urgent” and removed from the urgent roll.
“We write to kindly request audience before the judge on the question of urgency. Please kindly place this letter before the judge.”
It was during the hearing of whether the CCC application was urgent or not on Wednesday morning when Justice Katiyo told CCC lawyers that his security was threatened after the publishing of his phone number on social media.
“For the public to be told what I did was wrong, this was not good. We’re professionals, we shouldn’t behave like that. Let’s not incite violence. My security was threatened,” Justice Katiyo said. CCC wants the issue of the voters’ roll and polling stations to be finalised before the polling day on 23 August.
“The Electoral Court will at 9:30AM hear the CCC voters roll and polling stations case. The lawyers have insisted that the matter is urgent and have sought audience with the judge on the issue. An election is a voters roll and there can be no voting without a polling station,” Mpofu said.
ZEC is already under-fire for illegally and unconstitutionally printing and distributing the ballot papers for the local authority, parliamentary and presidential elections without disclosing to the electorate where and by whom the ballot papers were printed as stipulated by Section 52A of the Electoral Act.
Exiled former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo blasted ZEC for tarnishing the credibility of the upcoming elections by failing to be transparent in the printing of the ballot.
“It is common cause that ZEC has not provided political parties and candidates contesting the 23 August election or election observers, information on where and by whom the ballot papers for the election have been printed; and the total number of ballot papers that have been printed for each of the three elections [local authority, parliamentary and presidential]; the total number of ballot papers that have been printed for the harmonised general election; and the number of ballot papers that have been or will be distributed to each polling station.
“Section 52A(2) is peremptory, in that it does not give ZEC any discretion on the matter, it says the “the Commission shall, not may but shall, without delay provide the stipulated information on the printing of the ballot papers.
“The fact that ZEC has printed the ballot papers in blatant violation of section 52A(2) is a gross illegality whose impact can only dent the integrity and credibility of the election to render it neither free nor fair in terms of sections 56(1) and 67(1)(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe as read with section 239(a)(iv) whose constitutional imperative is that ZEC must ensure that:
“…elections and referendums are conducted efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law.
“Ballot papers for the 2023 harmonised general election have been printed opaquely, secretly and in unknown quantities to make it impossible for the all too important political right to vote to be exercised freely and fairly,” he said.
Source Nehanda Radio
