SELF-styled party Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Interim Secretary General Sengezo Tshabangu has filed an urgent court application seeking to stop the participation of 23 candidates under the CCC banner in the upcoming February 3 by elections.
This comes after the 23 members on December 18, 2023 successfully filed their nomination papers at the Nomination Court,
despite a previous High Court order barring fellow party members from contesting under the party name on the basis that they had ceased to be party members.
In his application, through his legal representative, Nqobani Sithole of Ncube Attorneys, Tshabangu cited the 23 members and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) as respondents.
Tshabangu noted that the recalled members are no longer members of the party hence should not contest under the party name.
“The application is made on the grounds that: On the 18th of December 2023, the Nomination Court sat consequent upon promulgation of the date for by-elections set down on the 3rd of February 2024.
“First to twenty-third respondents submitted their nomination papers before the Nomination Court to be accepted as candidates in the by-election as “members” of a political party called Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC party),” the application read.
“This was despite the fact that in a prior and extant judgment, they had been found by this court to have ceased to be members of that party. The Nomination Court accepted the nomination papers. The decision of the Nomination Court is unlawful in that it is contrary to an extant judgment of the High Court and was at any rate procured through an apparent act of defiance of that judgment.”
The application sought the court to set aside the Nomination Court’s decision to accept the 23 members’ nomination papers.
“Applicant consequently asks whether the court may be pleased to declare that the decision of the Nomination Court to accept the candidatures of First to third respondents is unlawful and set it aside.
“Given that the by-election is set to be held on the 3rd of February 2024 and administrative processes and requirements to enable the conduct of the election in terms of the law will commence anytime from now, applicants asks whether his cause may be heard and determined on an urgent basis,” the application read.
