Kasukuwere’s presidential bid case postponed

Harare (New Ziana) – The High Court in Harare on Thursday postponed to July 7 a case in which a private citizen is seeking to bar former cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere from running in the forthcoming elections on legal grounds.

Kasukuwere has registered to run for president, on an independent ticket, in the August 23 polls.

But lawyer Lovedale Mangwana has challenged Kasukuwere’s candidacy in the courts on grounds that the politician had been living outside Zimbabwe for more than 18 months, and therefore ineligible to take part.

In the case, which is before Justice David Mangota, Mangwana also cites the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and the Minister of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi as defendants.

He argues that the nomination court erred in accepting Kasukuwere’s papers to contest in the elections as an independent presidential candidate because his 18-month long absence from the country and constituency meant that he had ceased to be a registered voter.

Therefore, Mangwana states, the nomination court’s decision to register Kasukuwere as candidate was in violation of the Constitution.

“The 1st respondent has not been resident in any constituency in the Republic of Zimbabwe for a period in excess of 18 consecutive months and his name cannot, by that circumstance, be retained on the voter’s roll,” he said.

However, Kasukuwere’s election agent, Jacqueline Sande, who successfully filed his nomination papers at the High Court in Harare on June 21, says the case was too shallow and frivolous, and was going to collapse.

Lawyers for both parties in the case were instructed to file all papers by July 5 before the court sits on July 7.
New Ziana