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KEITH GUZAH 

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
Legal experts have expressed different views on the nomination of Zanu-PF candidate, Cde Keith Guzah, who won the Hurungwe West by-election on June 10.

This followed a statement issued by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission saying Cde Guzah did not vote in the polls because his name was not yet appearing on the Hurungwe West voters’ roll following his transfer from Magunje Constituency.

Some lawyers argued the delay by ZEC to update its voters’ roll database did not have any legal effect on Cde Guzah’s election.

Others were of the view that the electoral body bungled, saying according to the Electoral Act, it was not supposed to accept Cde Guzah’s nomination papers if his name was not appearing on the constituency voters’ roll.

Prominent Harare lawyer, Mr Jonathan Samkange, said Cde Guzah met all the legal requirements prescribed by the Electoral Act for one to transfer from one constituency to another and the delay by ZEC should not affect him.

“The process to transfer rests with ZEC,” he said.

“He (Cde Guzah) followed all the legal requirements to comply with the Electoral Act so how can he be disqualified?

“He is not in control of the actual process of updating the voters’ roll and, according to ZEC itself, he qualified.”

However, former Attorney-General Mr Sobusa Gula Ndebele differed, saying a precedence was set in the Dr Gideon Gono case when he was disqualified as a Senator in Manicaland after it was discovered that the Registrar-General delayed to process his transfer from Harare to Manicaland.

“It is a tricky one. You remember the Gono story. It looks like a related story in my view,” he said.

“Precedence was set before. It would be tricky that a person who cannot vote can be voted for.

“To be elected you must be a registered voter in the constituency you want to contest,” he said.

University of Zimbabwe lecturer and law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the Electoral Act was clear that (Cde) Guzah’s nomination was erroneous.

“For a person to be validly nominated as a candidate, the Electoral Act requires that person to be on the voters’ roll for the constituency in which he wants to be a candidate,” he said.

“The simple issue to decide in this case is the meaning of the voters’ roll. Is it a physical document or a document that exists in the air? The Electoral Act is clear that a voters’ roll can only be in two forms — either a hard copy or an electronic copy,” said Prof Madhuku.

“But it is clear that whichever form, a voters’ roll is a list of names put together. It does not consist of people who are not yet on the register but have to be on the register,” he said.

“(Cde) Guzah was not on the voters’ roll for the given constituency although those compiling the roll agreed to enter his name.

“By the time of nomination he was qualified to be on the roll but was not on the roll. Unfortunately for him, the law requires him to be on the roll.”

Another lawyer, Mr Alec Muchadehama, said Electoral Act clearly states that for any person to be called a voter he or she must be registered in the voters’ roll (Section 2 of the Electoral Act).

He said in the case of (Cde) Guzah, he was supposed to go through the political party nomination after which at least five registered witnesses should nominate him before the nomination court accepted his papers.

Mr Muchadehama said Cde Guzah failed all the tests starting from the political party because a political party should nominate a registered candidate.

“In this case it is clear that Guzah was not a registered voter because he did not appear in the Hurungwe West voters’ roll.

“His party was not supposed to nominate him, the nomination court was also not supposed to accept his nomination papers and people who nominated him were not supposed to support his candidature.”

He said Section 45 of the Electoral Act states that a person shall be disqualified for nomination as a party list candidate if he is not on the voters’ roll.

“How can a person who cannot vote expect other people to vote for him? asked Muchadehama.

“In this case people voted for phantom ghost called Guzah because he was not registered as a voter in Hurungwe West,” he said.