The Bulawayo High Court has instructed lawyers for the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to merge their members’ election petitions so that they can be heard jointly and by the same judge, postponing the hearing of these cases to July 19, 2023.
One of the election petition cases involves members of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in Bulawayo who are challenging their omission from the provincial council list, claiming the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) deprived them of the opportunity of submitting their party list nomination papers.
Read:https://cite.org.zw/ccc-seeks-court-clearance-to-submit-bulawayo-provincial-council-candidates-list/
The Bulawayo High Court was this Monday afternoon supposed to hear these matters:
CCC and another versus ZEC EC13/23
CCC and seven others versus ZEC EC 14/23
CCC and seven others versus ZEC EC 15/23
CCC and three others versus ZEC EC 16/23
Tinashe Runganga of Tanaka Law Chambers, who represents CCC, stated the parties had agreed to merge all legal challenges as they involved the same issue.
“Technically we have agreed on consolidating the matters, this means cases that deal with a particular issue that is the same will be put in the same group and determined by the same judge. All the matters are likely to be heard at once,” he told CITE.
There are more cases from CCC that are on the High Court’s roll for Tuesday:
CCC versus ZEC and three others EC 03/23
CCC versus ZEC and seven others EC 04/23
CCC versus ZEC and six others EC 05/23
CCC and another versus ZEC EC 12/23
CCC and five others versus ZEC EC 11/23
CCC and five others versus ZEC EC 06/23
Runganga stated the remaining unconsolidated matters would be heard in the High Court on Tuesday, but the agreement to consolidate them remained unchanged.
“The agreement is that the cases be grouped and be heard on July 19, 2023 and if the court permits on the 20th but that is subject to what the court will say. For now what we know is the 19th matter,” he said.
The lawyer also said the CCC “court application, which is the one of interest to quite a lot of people, is also going to be heard on July 19, 2023.”
Some of the election complaints come from Matabeleland South, while ZEC officers who were presiding over the Nomination Court in Gwanda were also present at the Bulawayo High Court.
