By Chengeto Chidi
The Supreme Court has ruled that the 12 Citizens Coalition for Change Bulawayo candidates whom the High Court had ruled that they had not submitted their nomination papers on time.
CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere shared that the Supreme Court overrode the High Court decision to dismiss their appeal.
“They have ruled that the judgement of the High Court should be set aside, this effectively means that the 12 MPs from Bulawayo have been reinstated to the ballot,” she shared.
The 12 Members of Parliament candidates included the CCC other spokesperson Ostallos Siziba had been barred from contesting in the harmonised elections.
They had appealed seeking to reverse the lower Court ruling saying it had made an error and the appeal to the Supreme Court had suspended the High Court ruling.
Mahere also said that they should not have had been barred in the first place
She said that the Bulawayo residents will not be deprived of their right to vote for their preferred candidates
“We are relieved because at least the people of Bulawayo will be able to choose leaders of their own, it would have been a coup on the will of the people for them to be removed,”
“There is no justifiable basis for the people of Bulawayo to be denied the right to vote in leaders of their choice, it’s imperative that every Zimbabwean gets to make this choice,” Mahere said.
Human Rights lawyer Doug Coltart said he was appreciative of the decision but it does not let go of the accusations that have been going about of the courts being captured
“It’s a very significant victory but this does not change all of the other legal issues that are undermining this election but this was an important one to resolve,” he said.
He said that if the appeal had not been accepted this would have affected the democracy of the country.
“Had this appeal not been allowed it would have been one of the most serious legal assaults on our democracy,”
Questions have been raised over the selective application of the law as aspiring presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere’s name was scrapped off the ballot as the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal and MDC candidates too had their appeals dismissed.
Coltart shared that this one judgement is a drop in the ocean against other violations of the law
It does not do away with or sanitise all of the violations of the Electoral Act and Constitution which are ongoing but it is still an important victory,” he said.
The country is now 20 days from elections and campaigning are already taking place while some parties are spending most of their time in the courts.