The Constitutional Court has thrown out an application filed to compel parliament to investigate the conduct of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in redrawing the electoral boundaries.
Constitutional lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku filed the application on behalf of his client Zanu-PF activist Tonderai Chidawa who argues that ZEC’s violated the constitution whilst conducting the delimitation exercise.
The draft report produced by ZEC was signed by two
Due to disagreements within the commission, which led to seven commissioners declining to sign the report, an application was filed to force ZEC to set aside the delimitation report while parliament looked investigated its actions.
Election watchdogs, legislators and political parties have raised concern over the numerous irregularities associated with the delimitation exercise.
President Emmerson Mnangangwa published the final Delimitation Report on 20 February 2023.
The report will be used in the upcoming general elections.
Chidawa filed the application on 13 January 2023 after ZEC had produced a draft delimitation report which seven other commissions declined to sign.
Madhuku Explains
Speaking to the media last Monday, Professor Madhuku said the court did not believe parliament had that responsibility to investigate ZEC.
“The constitutional court was sitting to consider our application, which was to say parliament was supposed to investigate whether ZEC had conducted itself properly in producing the delimitation report.
“The court says parliament has no such obligation, and they believe that section 119 of constitution which we cited, does not place an obligation on parliament, because they believe there is no constitutional provision which compels parliament to investigate, and we had no cause.
“They meant that we had not pleaded any cause meaning, we have not sighted any constitutional provision that compels parliament to investigate the operations of ZEC, ” he said.
This judgement comes at a time when MDC-T led by Douglas Mwonzora filed a constitutional court application seeking to compel ZEC to re-do the delimitation exercise and to stop the Mnangagwa from proclaiming the election date.
However, after filing the court application Mwonzora has been accused of fearing the elections, but he insists he wants to guarantee an undisputed election.
