Zanu PF has claimed five seats uncontested council seats ahead of the February 3, by-elections, after the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidates were declared ineligible to contest by the High Court.
On January 19, 2024, the High Court issued an order barring 23 recalled CCC members from the ballot for the upcoming by-elections, declaring their nominations null and void.
As a result, five wards, as announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), became uncontested and the Zanu PF candidates contesting in those areas were declared duly elected.
The five wards include two in Chiredzi Town Council (Wards 6 and 7), two in Harare (Wards 5 and 18) and one in Manyame Rural District Council (Ward 7).
This disqualification came after Sengezo Tshabangu posing as the CC interim secretary general submitted an application -HCH197/24 – seeking to bar the names of 23 candidates who were recalled as CCC MPs or Councillors last year November – for the by-elections set for February 3. 2024.
High Court Judge, Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, ruled that the acceptance by the various Nomination Courts that sat on December 18, 2023, of the nominations of 23 CCC candidates for the February 3 by-elections who identified as members of the Citizens Coalition for Change political party was illegal and thus null and void, and hereby set aside.
“Consequently the 1st to 23rd respondents shall not appear on the ballot papers as electoral candidates representing the Citizens Coalition for Change political party in the by-elections concerned,” Justice Kwenda said.
Reacting to the latest ZEC notice, Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor David Coltart stated that the goal of all the manoeuvering Tshabangu was doing was to serve the interests of Zanu PF rather than “reform” the CCC.
“We are told that all the machinations are to ‘reform’ the CCC but it is clear from the consequences that this is almost solely designed to benefit Zanu PF – allowing it to win seats it otherwise would never be able to. Our ‘democracy’ has become absolutely farcical,” said the Bulawayo mayor on his X account.
