Bhasikiti seeks to stop Nomination Court Mr Bhasikiti
Mr Bhasikiti

Mr Bhasikiti

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
EXPELLED Mwenezi East National Assembly member Mr Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, has a fresh urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking to stop the Nomination Court for a by-election in his former constituency set for July 20 this year.

Mr Bhasikiti, through his lawyer Mr Tendai Biti of Tendai Biti Law Chambers, is seeking to set aside Proclamation Number 7 of 2015 that set the Nomination Court date as July 20 and the by-election date as September 19, 2015.

He argued that all election-related processes should be done after July 31, when his challenge against dismissal from Zanu-PF would have been finalised.

The Constitutional Court recently ruled that electoral processes will be done after July 31.

The proclamation was published at the time the High Court was deliberating on the preliminary points raised in the case in which Mr Bhasikiti is contesting the legality of his expulsion from the revolutionary party.

President Mugabe and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were listed as respondents while Zanu-PF was only cited as an interested party in the matter.

Mr Bhasikiti wants the court to condemn the actions of President Mugabe in making the proclamation as unconstitutional.

He argued that President Mugabe was in contempt of the Constitutional Court by making the proclamation knowing that the same court had ordered that any by-election processes should be done after July 31.

Mr Bhasikiti seeks the setting aside of the proclamation and an order barring the sitting of the Nomination Court before July 31.

He also seeks an order emphasising that by-election for Mwenezi East must not be held before resolution of the dispute on the legality of his expulsion from the ruling party.

President Mugabe through proclamation Number 7 of 2015 contained in Statutory Instrument 73 of 2015, set nomination date for by-elections in Mwenezi East, Mbire and Marondera Central.

The election date was also gazetted as September 19 this year.

Mr Bhasikiti argued that the proclamation was in violation of the Constitutional Court order of June 25, which barred any election process before July 31.

“It is my respectful contention that Proclamation Number 7 of 2015 contained in SI 73of 2015, is in breach of the letter and spirit of the order of this court of June 25, 2015,” he said.

He also argued that the by-election date of September 19 was outside the 90-day period provided for in the Constitution.

“In addition, to the extent that the by-election is being held on the 19th of September 2015 when electoral vacancies in question fell due on the 11th of June 2015 if not earlier, then the notification is in breach of Section 159 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which makes it clear that a by-election shall be held within 90 days from the occurrence of the vacancy,” argued Mr Bhasikiti.

Fixing the Nomination Court date on July 20, Mr Bhasikiti said, defeated the whole essence of the Constitutional Court order.

The actions, Mr Bhasikiti argued, were in violation of his right to due process and to the rule of law enshrined under Section 56(1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Directing Nomination Court to sit before the finalisation of the dispute, the politician said, had an effect of breaching his right to be heard. Mr Bhasikiti argues that his right to participate in politics in terms of Section 67 of the Constitution had been breached.

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