Constitutional Court Dismisses Mwonzora's Application To Nullify ZEC's Delimitation Report
A full Constitutional Court bench led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba on Monday dismissed a court application filed by MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora seeking the court to invalidate the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s delimitation of electoral boundaries.
In dismissing the court application, Chief Justice Malaba said the court cannot stop a constitutional process.
Mwonzora had argued that ZEC had broken the law during the delimitation process.
He wanted the court to declare the delimitation invalid, order ZEC to redo the process, and compel President Emmerson Mnangagwa to only proclaim an election date after a new delimitation report.
Mnangagwa recently said he will proclaim the election date before the end of this month.
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Had Mwonzora Constitutional Court granted Mwonzora’s application, the 2023 general elections would have had to be postponed.
This is because there must be six months between delimitation and the election.
Malaba argued that as a presidential candidate, Mwonzora is not hurt by constituency boundaries.
He also said Mwonzora was not properly before the court, querying why the MDC-T leader had not submitted sworn affidavits from potential candidates who would have been prejudiced by the delimitation.
Speaking to reporters outside court, Mwonzora said the court made a political judgment. He said:
Their (judges’) argument is that they do not have jurisdiction, in other words, that they don’t have the power to hear the case. In our respective view, the court has made a political judgment.
According to newZWire, the ruling means that the path is now clear for the President to proclaim an election date.
The general elections must be held between 26 July and 26 August, to comply with Constitutional regulations that the election must come not more than 30 days after the expiry period of the current Parliament.
Current laws also stipulate that a proclamation can only be made 44-88 days before the election date.
More: Pindula News
