The High Court in Harare on Monday heard a challenge on the exorbitant election candidate nomination fees submitted by opposition politicians and pro-democracy campaigners, who want the fees reduced before Nomination Courts sit countrywide on Wednesday.
Represented by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the court challenge was filed by politician Egypt Dzinemunhenzva, Harare North legislator Allan Markham, Vongai Zimudzi and Tapiwanashe Chiriga who filed their initial application in September 2022.
The opposition politicians and pro-democracy campaigners are challenging the exorbitant nomination fees pegged by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for aspiring presidential, parliamentary and local authority candidates for the 2023 general elections.
In August 2022, ZEC gazetted nomination fees requiring aspiring presidential candidates to pay US$20 000 to contest in the presidential elections while aspiring legislators will pay a candidate fee of US$1 000 with aspiring candidates for local authority elections paying US$200.
In their application, which was filed last year, Dzinemunhenzva, Markham, Zimudzi and Chiriga, who are represented by Obey Shava of ZLHR argued that the nomination fees are exorbitant and should be withdrawn.
Shava also argued that regulations, the Statutory Instrument 144 of 2022, which amended the nomination fees for the 2023 general elections, are “unconstitutional, unreasonable and have the effect of blocking aspiring candidates from participating in elections.”
This comes after Parliament’s Legal Committee (PLC) approved the candidate nomination fees set by ZEC after it was tasked by the Constitutional Court to review SI 144 of 2022.
See here: https://cite.org.zw/parly-committee-approves-candidate-nomination-fees/case
The Constitutional Court challenge had been filed in April this year by the Nationalists Alliance Party (NAP).
Read: https://cite.org.zw/nap-takes-parliament-to-court-over-candidate-nomination-fees/
