SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
The MDC-T’s attempts to challenge the legality of the July elections continue to face serious difficulties, with two more electoral petitions being dismissed this week. Justice Chinembiri Bhunu on Monday said the petitions, filed by the losing MDC-T candidates in Marondera East and Hurungwe West constituencies, are “fatally defective,” because the individuals the candidates accused of being behind the alleged vote rigging there could not respond in the case. In the Marondera East constituency Tracy Mutinhiri was contesting the ‘victory’ by ZANU PF candidate Jeremiah Chiwetu, while Wilson Makanyange was contesting Temba Mliswa’s win in Hurungwe West. But Bhunu upheld the results and declared the ZANU PF candidates duly elected Members of Parliament. “In the final analysis, it is accordingly ordered that both electoral petitions filed by the petitioners are a nullity, void and of no force or effect,” Bhunu said. Bhunu said that the two petitions were not in line with the rules of the Electoral Court, which requires the full details of any person accused of corrupt or illegal practices. This includes full names and addresses, in order for those people to be summoned to court to respond to the allegations. Bhunu therefore threw out the MDC-T petitions on the technicality that, although the candidates listed chiefs, headmen and other traditional leaders as being behind the allegedly widespread rigging of the July poll, they did not give their full names and addresses. “Misinterpreting the law is, however no excuse for not complying with the law, for ignorance of the law is no excuse,” Bhunu said. Scores of challenges have been filed by losing MDC-T candidates since the disputed elections which saw Robert Mugabe and his party score a questionable ‘victory’. But the cases have seen little success for the Morgan Tsvangirai led party. This includes the challenge filed by Jameson Timba, the losing Mount Pleasant candidate, whose attempts to uncover voting irregularities have been halted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) ongoing failure to provide an electronic copy of the voters roll. Bhunu dismissed Timba’s application for a copy of the voters roll, saying the MDC-T candidate needed to first prove that the technical problems, which ZEC insists are preventing it from releasing the election voters roll, had been resolved.