Nomination Court sits tomorrow

The Nomination Court will tomorrow sit across selected venues in the country’s 10 provinces to accept names of presidential, parliamentary and council candidates for the forthcoming watershed national elections.

This comes as the High Court has ordered a rerun of MDC primary elections to choose its council representative in Mabvuku’s ward 21 following a successful challenge by losing candidate, Blessing Nhende, who pointed irregularities in the opposition party’s internal poll.

It is not clear whether the MDC would be able to have the rerun in time to meet the sitting of the Nomination Court in Harare.

According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) there will be 10 national Nomination Courts for the National Assembly candidates, meaning a sitting in each province.

In Bulawayo, the Nomination Court will be at the Magistrates’ Court, Tredgold Building.

Matabeleland North will have nine venues in Nkayi, Lupane Tsholotsho and Umguza, while Midlands will have 14 venues across the province, which will cover Mvuma, Nembudziya, Gokwe and Zvishavane.

In Masvingo, there will be nine venues as well covering Chivi, Chiredzi, Masvingo and Gutu.

A presidential candidate will have to fork out $1 000 to register with the Nomination Court. Aspiring MPs are required to pay $50 each while those seeking to occupy Senate, are supposed to pay $10.

Those vying to be councillors are not required to pay anything. As part of the regulations, all presidential candidates are required to produce proof that they are Zimbabwean citizens and above the age of 40 and should be nominated by 10 eligible voters from every province among other requirements.

Those seeking to be in the House of Assembly and Local Government have to be above the age of 21.

Candidates are also asked to include in their papers, a copy of their identity card, three colour passport sized photos and a signed copy of the code of conduct.

The Nomination Court is sitting following the conclusion of shambolic and disastrous primary elections by both Zanu PF and the main faction of the MDC which have raised serious prospects of sabotage by disgruntled losing candidates.

While Zanu PF has finalised its list of candidates, the MDC Alliance, a conglomeration of the MDC and fringe opposition parties, is battling to have consensus following confusion on allocation of seats among the partners.

The MDC led by the Alliance’s presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa is also trying to heal an ugly rift between the old guard and new blood which resulted in mindless bloodletting during the poorly-organised internal elections held recently.

The looming national elections have generated a lot of interest among both ordinary Zimbabweans and ambitious politicians alike that a number of opposition leaders are set to contest President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the presidential plebiscite next month. DailyNews