Losing candidate for Hurungwe West Temba Mliswa has no potent legal case against winner Keith Guzah’s election, legal experts at the Veritas NGO say.
In the issue released at the weekend the experts state that the man does not have legal strength for a lawsuit against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Even on the issue of Guzah’s alleged criminal conviction, the law only says that a person is ineligible for parliament if he or she was booted from parliament in the past five years for an offence of which Guzah was nowhere near parliament during the period.
 

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Hurungwe West, Swearing-in of New MPs, New Vacancies

 
A controversy has arisen over whether ZANU-PF’s Keith Guzah, declared winner of the Hurungwe West by-election on 10th June, was validly nominated to stand for the constituency.
What Does the Constitution Say?
All the Constitution says about qualifications for a constituency candidate is that a person is qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly if “registered as a voter” and at least 21 years old. A candidate is ineligible if he is not qualified to be a voter at all, or was compelled to leave Parliament in the previous five years because of being convicted of a crime [section 125].
The Constitution does not say that a constituency candidate must be registered on the constituency voters roll. [If this had been intended it would have said so directly – in the same way as sections 274 and 275, which state that an urban or rural councillor must be a registered voter in the urban or rural area concerned.]
Nor does the Constitution say that Act of Parliament can add additional qualifications or disqualifications for a constituency candidate. Hence any provision in the Electoral Act that attempted to do so would be null and void for inconsistency with the Constitution.
 
What Does the Electoral Act Say?
As stated above the Electoral Act cannot validly add a qualification for a constituency candidate that is not in the Constitution. And in fact it does not say anything about whether a candidate for a constituency seat must be registered on the voters roll of the constituency for which he is standing. What the Act does say is that if a candidate [presumably wanting to show good will and getting more backing in a constituency that has asked him or her to stand as its candidate] wants to transfer his registration as a voter from another constituency to the one in which intends to stand, he or she may do so [Section 23(1) of the Act]. But there is nothing in the Electoral Act which compels a candidate to do so, and an inference cannot be drawn from this section that he or she has to do so.
The nomination form in the Ninth Schedule to the Electoral Act seems to be what has caused some confusion. There were two versions of the pro forma certificate to be signed by candidates in the form distributed by ZEC:
One says “The candidate is enrolled as a voter in the constituency”. The other says The candidate is enrolled as a voter in the …………………… constituency” – leaving a space for the name of any constituency to be filled in. With the dots, the form reflects the Constitution [i.e. the true legal position]. Without the dots the interpretation is ambiguous. This suggests that the dots were omitted when the Act was printed, but whatever the explanation the presence or absence of a few dots in a mere form is no basis for reading an additional qualification into the Electoral Act, particularly when, like this one, the form also contains other obvious drafting errors.
There has been a suggestion in the press that ZEC should rerun the election. ZEC has no power to do so. The losing candidate will have to seek his remedy through the courts. He has already done so.
16 New ZANU-PF Constituency MPs Sworn In
Following the ZANU-PF clean sweep in the sixteen by-elections 10th June, the new ZANU-PF constituency members of the National Assembly were sworn in on Tuesday 16th June. The names of the new members and their constituencies are:
Bulawayo Metropolitan Province-
Lobengula: Maideyi Mpala;
Luveve: Ntandoyenkosi Mlilo;
Makokoba: Tshinga Judge Dube;
Pelandaba /Mpopoma: Joseph Tshuma;
Pumula: Godfrey Malaba Ncube
Harare Metropolitan Province
Dzivaresekwa: Omega Sipani-Hungwe;
Glen View South: Pius Madzinga;
Harare East: Terence Mukupe;
Highfield West: Psychology Maziwiza;
Kambuzuma: Tinashe Maduza;
Kuwadzana: Betty Nhambu
Manicaland Province
Chikanga-Dangamvura: Isau Fungai Mupfumi;
Headlands: Christopher Peter Chingosho
Mashonaland West Province
Hurungwe West: Keith Never Guzah
Matabeleland North Province
Tsholotsho North: Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo
Midlands Province
Mbizo: Vongaishe Mupereri
Seven New MDC-T MPs Sworn In
On 16th June ZEC in General Notices 186 and 187 declared the MDC-T party-list replacements for the unseated MDC Renewal Parliamentarians. The MDC-T replacements were sworn in on Thursday 18th June:
Senators: Anna Chimanikire [[Harare Metropolitan Province]; David Anthony Chimhini [Manicaland]; Theresa Maonei Makone [[Harare Metropolitan Province]; Beki Sibanda [Matabeleland South].
National Assembly women party-list members: Susan Matsunga [Harare Metropolitan Province]; Nomvula Mguni [Bulawayo Metropolitan Province]; Machirairwa Mugidho [Masvingo Province].
Two More Vacancies Announced
On Wednesday 17th June the President of the Senate announced two new vacancies after receiving notification from ZANU-PF that the Mrs Olivia Muchena and Mr Dzikamai Mavhaire were no longer members of the party.
All 5 MPs expelled from ZANU-PF on 21st May have now had their seats declared vacant. [See Bill Watch 21/2015 of 15th June for the previous week’s announcement that three National Assembly seats were vacant because of the expulsion from ZANU-PF of Mr Bhasikiti, Mr Butau and Mr Kaukonde].
Mr Bhasakiti is contesting his expulsion in the High Court and won a constitutional court case delaying the holding of a by-election to fill his seat pending the result of his High Court application.
Update on Parliamentary Numbers as at 19th June
National Assembly
Occupied seats:
ZANU-PF…………………………………..
206
MDC-T……………………………………….
56
MDC………………………………………….
2
Total occupied seats:……………….
264
Vacancies:
ZANU-PF (1 party-list seat,
5 constituency seats)………………….
6
Total number of seats: ………………..
270
Senate
Occupied seats:
ZANU-PF…………………………………..
35
MDC-T……………………………………….
21
MDC………………………………………….
2
Chiefs ……………………………………….
18
Disabled representatives …………..
2
Total occupied seats:……………….
78
Vacancies:
ZANU-PF only……………………………
2
Total number of seats: ………………..
80