Zimpapers Logo

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
ZANU-PF winning candidates in the 39 National Assembly Constituencies in which MDC-T is challenging the election have written to the registrar of the Electoral Court requesting a meeting to agree on how the petitions will be dealt with conveniently. Harare lawyer Mr Fred Gijima of FG Gijima and Associates, on behalf of the winning Zanu-PF candidates, on Tuesday wrote to the registry proposing that lawyers for parties involved in the petitions should have a case management meeting before Judge President George Chiweshe.

“We propose that the parties’ respective legal representatives hold a case management meeting before the Judge President or such other judge as the Judge President may assign,” read the letter.

According to the letter the parties should agree on the timelines and procedure for arguing the preliminary points raised by the respondents.

They also need to agree on the timelines and how the main petitions should be argued.
Timelines for filing heads of argument and the time within which the matters should be set down and concluded.

Mr Gijima proposed that if the parties agree on certain issues, the agreement should be endorsed as a court order for progress’ sake.
“We propose that each group of legal practitioners for the petitioners and respondents select not more than four legal practitioners to attend the case management meeting and that the agreed positions shall be recorded as an order of the court,” read the letter.

Initially, 95 MDC-T candidates filed petitions at the Electoral Court challenging the results and the manner in which the electitions were conducted on July 31 this year.

They alleged intimidation of voters by traditional leaders who were accused of even threatening to evict from the villages the members who voted for MDC-T.

Out of the 95 petitions, MDC-T chose to pay US$390 000 security for costs for the 39 petitions.
The law required each petitioner to pay up to US$10 000 to the court within seven days of filing the petition.

Among the lucky petitioners were Mr Lovemore Moyo, Mr Ian Makone, Mr Eric Knight, Mr Piniel Denga, Mr Blessing Chebundo, Mr Pishai Muchauraya, Ms Tracey Mutinhiri and Mr Takanayi Mureyi.

The rest of the abandoned petitions were for the little-known petitioners.
The criteria used in the selection of the 39 petitioners was not clearly explained, a development that has widened the rift among the party members who were not happy with the conduct of the leadership.

Corruption and nepotism are some of the issues being raised by some losing candidates whose petitions were not considered in the payment of the security for costs.

Others indicated that MDC–T, that reportedly bought an up market mansion for its leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, decided to choose the cases that they felt belonged to the bigwigs, leaving out what they considered weak cases.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora said the decision to drop other MPs was made due to the limited funds available and that there was no particular criteria used.