Jonathan Moyo loses court case

By Never Kadungure

Attention seeking former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was humiliated at the High Court when his application challenging the election of Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo was thrown out.

Lovemore Moyo who is from the MDC-T won the election despite Zanu PF colluding with a breakaway faction of the MDC to try and have Paul Themba Nyathi (MDC-M) as speaker.

Jonathan Moyo and 3 other (MDC-M) MP’s, Moses Mzila Ndlovu, Siyabonga Ncube and Patrick Dube sponsored the court challenge arguing the election was chaotic and disorderly. Justice Bharat Patel however dismissed the application with costs saying;

“The applicants have failed to establish any justification, either as regards the general conduct of the impugned election or with respect to the secrecy of the votes cast or otherwise, for setting aside or nullifying the election of the speaker of the house of assembly.”

Although Justice Patel agreed the environment was disorderly he ruled that the election was valid saying; ‘It’s clear that all members marked their ballot papers in secrecy and none were coerced to vote for any candidate.’

A furious Moyo who was hoping to use the case to ingratiate himself to Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF has already said he will appeal in the Supreme Court.

‘The judge said his understanding of secret ballot is the act of voting in a booth secretly, not what happens after. That, in our view, is a narrow interpretation of secret ballot … it’s the ballot paper that must be secret, not the vote,” he is quoted as saying. Nehanda Radio

[newsletter]