THE Electoral Act does not forbid aspiring Members of Parliament to contest in constituencies where they are not registered voters, the Electoral Court ruled yesterday.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Justice Chinembiri Bhunu made the ruling in a pre-trial conference in a case where Hurungwe West losing candidate Temba Mliswa (independent) was seeking disqualification of new MP Keith Guzah (Zanu PF), accusing him of not being a registered voter in the constituency.
Mliswa lost to Guzah in a by-election held on June 10, but the former Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairman refused to accept defeat, claiming his rival had contravened provisions of the Electoral Act.
Mliswa had accused Guzah of committing electoral fraud by hiding the fact that he was once convicted of car theft and sentenced to a prison term, which was never appealed against, reviewed or quashed.
Mliswa said Guzah’s original name was Never Phiri, which he later changed by way of a notarial deed, but the MP denied the charge.
Guzah dismissed allegations of vote-buying and said his name was not on the Hurungwe West voters’ roll because it had not been transferred from Magunje constituency by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Speaking to NewsDay after the hearing, Guzah’s lawyer advocate Sylvester Hashiti said Justice Bhunu “also made an observation that there was no law that said former convicts, assuming Guzah was one, were barred from contesting elections through disqualifications in terms of Section 125 of the Constitution”.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“In terms of Section 125 of the Constitution, the only requirement to be an MP is that you must be a registered voter,” Hashiti said.
“It does not matter where one is registered, but as long as the people of that constituency have nominated you, you can stand.”
Hashiti said what was important in any election was for the voters’ nominating candidates for certain constituencies to be registered in those particular constituencies. Mliswa’s lawyer Musindo Hungwe said what remained was for the court to decide if the poll was not compromised by violence.
“The matter has been referred to trial to be conducted next week Wednesday and Thursday and the issues to be determined is whether or not there was intimidation and vote-buying which punctuated the electoral period, thereby causing undue electoral return,” he said.
