THE opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) House of Assembly candidate for Mutasa South constituency, Regai Tsunga, has filed a petition with the Electoral Court seeking nullification of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s declaration of Zanu PF candidate Misheck Mugadza as the winner of the 23 and 24 August polls.
KELVIN JAKACHIRA
Mugadza was declared winner after he received 11 608 ballots against Tsunga’s 10 383.
Tsunga is challenging both the result of the election and the declaration of Mugadza as the winner, arguing that the poll failed to meet the minimum standards in the constitution of Zimbabwe, the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
He is arguing that the poll was not held in compliance with the principles set out in the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13], and further that it was marred by irregularities and electoral malpractices which rendered it a null election.
In his petition, Tsunga cited Zec’s alleged lack of transparency and openness on election day that left voters, candidates, observers, monitors and polling agents in total darkness as to what was happening before and during the election days.
He argues that Zec’s lack of transparency and the shambolic manner in which it conducted the plebiscite is a breach of “section 67 of the constitution of Zimbabwe that guarantees the people of Zimbabwe the right to free, fair, regular [and credible] elections”.
Tsunga brings further scrutiny to Zec by challenging the alleged manipulation of “the delimitation process to commit an unfair practice of gerrymandering, mixing voters who have no community of interests and generally producing an unwieldy constituency that can never have their interests reconciled.”
Mutasa South constituency has three urban wards and six rural and semi-rural wards. One urban ward in Mutare’s Chikanga township was removed from the constituency during the delimitation process.
In his petition, Tsunga cites severe irregularities and malpractices in wards constituted by resettled farmers in wards 25 and 21 where the electorate live under the constant fear of being evicted from farms for lack of title or security of tenure to the detriment of their ability to vote freely and without fear of retribution.
“As a result they are unable to fully exercise their constitutional rights as provided for in the Bill of Rights, including fundamental freedoms of association, assembly and expression as well as the rights under section 67 to free, fair, regular and credible elections owing to insecurity of tenure and threats of eviction” said Tsunga in the petition.
He also argued that the resettled farmers are a captive electorate living under constant fear and subjugation and always being controlled and manipulated against their will.
“This is why rural farmers must be given title deeds or some form of security of tenure so that they can become citizens and not subjects,” added Tsunga.
The petition also raises a litany of malpractices and irregularities allegedly committed directly or indirectly by Zanu PF candidate Mugadza.
Tsunga concludes that “ultimately it is a combination of voter suppression in urban and peri-urban areas and a combination of strategic voter suppression and voter coercion, in rural and farming wards by Respondent, Zec, Zanu PF, traditional leaders and the Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz) that created an unfair and uneven play field and tilted the election in favour of the Zanu PF candidates in Mutasa South.”
Tsunga argues that something is fishy in the extension of elections from 23 August to 24 August 2023 and that such extension was meant to create conditions to assess Zanu PF’s performance on 23 August 2023 and use the 24th of August to implement a “rigging mechanism” to offset the gains he and his CCC political party had made on 23 August.
“The sudden emergence of a highly performing Respondent and Zanu PF on 24 August 2023 after generally weak and losing performance on 23 August shows Zec’s failure to hold the elections as proclaimed and as required by the constitution on 23 August, created an opportunity for large-scale electoral malpractices by the Respondent to overturn the electoral deficit of 23 August. This totally destroyed the credibility of the elections in the eyes of the electorate,” said Tsunga.
The CCC presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa, has rejected the election result of 2023 and has also refused to recognise President Emmerson Mnangagwa as duly elected, arguing that the poll was so devoid of any credibility that it cannot be said to be an election at all.
Chamisa, however, has chosen not to file an election petition despite preparing one, arguing lack of confidence in the independence of the judiciary in Zimbabwe.
The judiciary has been under the spotlight during the election, which has seen higher levels of pre-election litigation than ever before.
The Sadc Election Observer Mission (SEOM) has also taken the unprecedented step of condemning the elections as not held in accordance with the Zimbabwean constitution, Electoral Act and the Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
After the 2000 elections, the opposition filed around 40 election challenges for MPs, but not a single of these cases was finalised by the judiciary by 2005 when the parliamentary term lapsed.
