Voters boycott bizzare elections

Source: Voters boycott bizzare elections – The Standard

Friday left gold dealer Pedzai Scott Sakupwanya uncontested in Harare’s Mabvuku-Tafara.

Voters yesterday largely stayed away from several by-elections where leading Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidates’ names were removed from the ballot at the 11th hour under controversial circumstances.

All nine CCC legislators that were recalled by self-imposed interim secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu were barred from the election.

A late-night High Court ruling on

Friday left gold dealer Pedzai Scott Sakupwanya uncontested in Harare’s Mabvuku-Tafara.

On the eve of the elections, CCC had launched an appeal with the Supreme Court as it demanded that eight of its candidates must be reinstated on the ballots.

Tshabangu’s lawyers then approached the High Court and Mutare judge Justice Isaac Muzenda is said to have held a hearing late into the night without CCC legal representatives and ruled against them.

Lawyer Jeremiah Bhamu says he was ambushed at night to the case hearing that enforced the ban on CCC MPs.

 “He had in fact been dragged out of bed by a desperate plea from the High Court registrar to assist in a case management session with respect to a matter in which one of the principals in his firm, Mr. Alec Muchadehama (CCC lawyer) was handling,” reads a letter penned to the High Court by Bamu’s lawyers Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni Legal Practitioners.

“The registrar advised that he had made prior efforts to contact Mr Muchadehama and had failed.”

Bhamu’s lawyers said their client protested being dragged in to argue a case in the middle of the night and without the mandate of the CCC.

“He had not even read the application and he knew nothing about it,” they said. “He was not privy to the proceedings that had taken place before His Lordship Katiyo resulting in the appeal.

“He was not the legal practitioner of choice for any of the applicants and he could not impose his representation upon them.

“This is the basis of understanding upon which Mr Bhamu joined the session, only to be ambushed into a hearing in respect of which he had no prior knowledge, no file, no instructions from any person and in respect of which he completely knew nothing about.”

Bhamu said he revealed the Friday night ambush court processes to avoid censure from the Law Society of Zimbabwe for “purporting to represent clients who had not instructed him to do so”.

CCC leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said the by-elections were a non-event. Chamisa called on citizens to register their discontent.

“The crisis in Zimbabwe is now being dramatized by these sham elections,” he told The Standard in an interview.

“The by-elections are a non-event at law. And in politics, you don’t illegally recall MPs, unlawfully bar and criminally ban certain contestants and deliver judgment at night Nicodemously.

 “It’s no longer politics, but banditry and terrorism at play where fraud and crime are celebrated.”

He added: “This is a wakeup call on Zimbabweans to finally and with precision deal with the crisis we are facing so that we return to majority rule.

“We run the risk of having a one man state, a mafia state.  You can’t govern by thuggery.

“It’s Stone Age, antiquated and we will not stand by and be idle as a people.

“We will not allow madness to go on and on. The writing is on the wall.”

The by-elections were held in eight constituencies of Matabeleland – Bulawayo South, Cowdray Park, Lobengula-Magwegwe, Mpopoma-Mzilikazi, Nketa, Binga North,  Lupane East and Beitbridge West.

According to a midday update by the Electoral Resource Centre, only 8.4% of registered voters had exercised their right in Bulawayo.

At Mahlabezulu primary polling station, Tshabalala Pelandaba, in Bulawayo’s ward 21, only 94 people had voted by 5pm.

At Barham Green Primary School, Bulawayo South, 44 people had voted by 5pm.

At Lobengula-Magwegwe Constituency Mountain view tent polling station, polling officers said 64 people had voted by 5pm.

At Zaoga Nketa Polling Station where there were a total of 727 registered voters, only  62 people had cast their votes by late afternoon.

It was the same story across several polling stations in Bulawayo, Binga, Lupane and Beitbridge where less than 100 people had cast their votes by 5pm.

“The elections were peaceful but the voter turnout was very low,” said Zanu PF candidate Nketa constituency Albert Mavunga. “We did not expect this.”

CCC Tshabangu’s candidate in the same constituency Ambrose Sibindi said: “I am not losing hope but I hear that people were being threatened not to go and vote.”

In other polling centres, pictures emerged showing voters having spoiled ballot papers by scribbling their preferred names of banned candidates and voting for them.

In Beitbridge West, the turnout was likely better in rural polling stations where Zanu PF gave handouts to its supporters ahead of the vote.

“We are having a lower turnout than expected. Yes we will have more than 50% but this is far less than our hopes,” said a Zanu PF source.

Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu in an interview denied accusations that the party was bribing voters.

“An opportunity presented itself and like a serious organisation we go in whole heartedly. We are a big party. We have means and we are serious,” he said.