BY BLESSED MHLANGA
EMBATTLED MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora’s presidency faces a new threat after the party’s United States provincial leadership yesterday resolved to challenge his election in court.
US MDC-T provincial chairman Den Moyo yesterday said the province had already set up a legal team which will soon approach the High Court in Harare in a bid to set aside Mwonzora’s controversial election as party president in December last year.
Mwonzora won the presidency in 2020 after beating Thokozani Khupe, Morgen Komichi and Elias Mudzuri during a controversial extraordinary congress (EOC) held in December.
“We are approaching the High Court to come up with a strong case. We have to take time to gather all the evidence as we don’t want a half-baked lawsuit that will end up failing to achieve its intended results.
“So we are taking our time, interviewing people who were present at the EOC, people who were attacked, the events that unfolded, people who witnessed a different voters’ roll being presented than the one that was used, people who witnessed non-party members that were bussed in, and those who were not delegates being allowed to vote at the congress,” Moyo said.
Khupe, Komichi and Mudzuri had initially dismissed the elections as a farce, but they have since accepted the results and are now working under Mwonzora.
MDC-T party spokesperson Witness Dube said: “How can Den Moyo challenge a congress result he got to know of more than four months ago and only after being suspended from the party? His actions are a further vindication of the decision to suspend him because he is clearly motivated by selfish reasons.”
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The US province’s challenge comes just a few days after an independent electoral management body (IEMB) hired by the MDC-T to run its elections endorsed Mwonzora’s victory.
The IEMB admitted that the voters’ roll was not perfect.
“There were cases where some delegates’ names did not have national identity numbers, so some had spelling errors on their names. They were allowed to vote after verification of their authenticity by the commissioners and their ID numbers captured by commissioners as per the agreement that had been made between the IEMB and candidates.
“At least 95% of the delegates that turned out to vote and had their names on the voters roll or the supplementary roll, or the verified provincial list managed to cast their vote despite some having had to cast their vote late into the night,” the report read.
A total of 1 026 votes out of the expected 4 500 were cast on December 27, with 883 voting for Mwonzora, 118 voting for Khupe, 14 for Mudzuri and nine for Komichi.
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