Trial of Election Resource Centre officials postponed

HARARE – The trial of three Election Resource Centre (ERC) officials arrested in May this year and charged with conducting voter education was on Wednesday postponed to the 28th of October 2013.

The three, Moses Chikora (32), Farai Saungweme (23) and Wadzanai Nyakudya (23) were part of the X1G Mobile Caravan Campaign which was aimed at raising awareness on the need for young people to register as voters and take part in the July 31 harmonised elections.

The three represented by ERC Director, Tawanda Chimhini briefly appeared before a Harare Magistrate at the Rotten Row courts Wednesday morning. The trial however did not kick off after the state asked for a postponement claiming it was overwhelmed with other cases at hand.

Meanwhile the defence team, represented by Trust Maanda of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) notified the court of its intention to apply for referral to the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of the section being used to charge the accused persons.

The Defence team felt that some provisions of the Section violated the accused person’s freedom of expression. Critics accuse Mugabe’s government of cracking down on the operations of NGO’s involved in voter education and monitoring elections to help Zanu PF manipulate the electoral playing field.