The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party won one of two election petition suits it filed at the Bulawayo High Court disputing the disqualification of its nominated candidates from local authority elections in Gwanda.
This was after the Nomination Court that sat in Gwanda on June 21, 2023, rejected the election nomination of papers submitted by Joseph Khumalo of Ward 6.
In a hearing of the case on Wednesday, Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Christopher Dube-Banda, ruled in favour of Khumalo who was represented by Professor Welshman Ncube.
Prof Ncube argued that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had made a mistake during the nomination process and improperly disqualified the applicant.
“Khumalo was disqualified on the basis that his name did not appear on that ward’s voters roll,” said Prof Ncubne while ZEC lawyer Tawanda Kanengoni made no objections and conceded the commission had made a mistake.
Justice Dube-Banda then reinstated him as one of the Ward 6 candidates.
However, CCC could not overturn the disqualification of another of its candidates Mandlenkosi Moyo who was in the running for Ward 2 in Gwanda Urban.
Moyo was disqualified for not being a registered voter in Ward 2 although he argued that he was indeed registered but delimitation changes had moved him to outside to Ward 7.
“The boundary map was redrawn in such a way that Moyo’s polling station and his physical address where he lives were all moved to Ward 7 out of Ward 2, so we conceded that he was properly disqualified because he is not a registered voter in Ward 2 but in Ward 7,” said Prof Ncube.
ZEC’s gazetted list of successfully nominated candidates showed that the ruling Zanu PF party had fielded all 1 974 candidates for local authority elections while the CCC had only managed to field in 1 869 wards.
Meanwhile, CCC has several election petitions pending in the High Court relating to the acceptance of nomination papers for its candidates.
