Battle for election date spills into court
By Tichaona Sibanda
HARARE – The court case brought against President Robert Mugabe, for delaying by- elections in three Matabeleland constituencies, took a new twist on Thursday when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai filed an application to join the court proceedings.
The case was heard before Judge President George Chiweshe, who postponed the hearing to next week Thursday. There has been controversy as to when the next general election should take place, with Mugabe and ZANU PF insisting it should be 29th June while the two MDC formations prefer end of July or August.
On behalf of Mugabe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa this week filed an urgent chamber application seeking an extension of the March 31st by-election deadline to June 29th, by which time harmonized elections should be held.
The Supreme Court last year ordered Mugabe to set the by-election dates for three constituencies–Nkayi South, Bulilima East and and Lupane East–by March 31st, after an application by Abednico Bhebhe, Njabuliso Mguni and Norman Mpofu, all former MDC legislators for the constituencies in question.
But Mugabe is seeking an extension of the Supreme Court order, arguing that due to lack of funds the by-elections should be delayed and held during the harmonized elections, which he wants at the end of June.
A source told us Prime Minister Tsvangirai has now joined the fray in opposing Mugabe’s intention to announce June 29th as the date for harmonized elections, arguing that he was not consulted about this date, which he should have been as one of the key principals in the GPA. The Premier filed an application on Thursday to join the court proceedings.
Meanwhile the MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti this week said the exit polls conducted by his party’s polling agents suggest the referendum figures were wrong, and that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission may have adjusted the figures up.
Media reports in Harare quote Biti suggesting that far less than the 3.3 million votes announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were cast in the March 16th referendum.
The referendum figures showed the highest voter turnout since Independence in 1980. But speaking at a public discussion hosted by the Sapes Trust in Harare, Biti cast doubts over the veracity of the figures released by ZEC.
‘There is a 10 to 15 percent variance between ZEC’s figures and those collated by our own team of agents who covered all the polling stations nationally,’ said Biti.
He explained that his party noted a disturbing trend, where some constituencies and districts recorded a higher voter turnout than the population of the areas, according to the last census statistics of 2012.
He gave as an example constituencies in Midlands, Masvingo, Mashonaland East and Matabeleland South provinces as having more numbers of people who voted in the referendum than the number of people enumerated in last year’s census.
Blessing Vava, the National Constitutional Assembly spokesman, told us the MDC-T must blame themselves for not listening to concerns raised by many people.
‘They are telling us now about the doctored figures when we told them before the referendum that was going to happen to ensure a clear victory for the Yes vote.
‘What they didn’t know was that ZANU PF used the vote as a dress rehearsal to perfect their rigging mechanism come election time. It’s unfortunate they used to be our partners but they no longer listen to advise…that is going to be their downfall,’ Vava said. SW Radio Africa
