Former Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Temba Mliswa has threatened to take the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to court over the poll management body’s failure to put in place a special committee to oversee the impending Norton by-election.
Source: Mliswa threatens Zec with court action – NewsDay Zimbabwe October 6, 2016
BY MUNESU NYAKUDYA
Mliswa is contesting the snap poll on October 22 as an independent candidate and has received support from opposition parties as well as veterans of the liberation struggle.
According to Mliswa, Zec promised to set up a liaison committee to deal with outbreaks of violence, but had failed to do so with just over two weeks before the election. Mliswa, who now leads a group known as Youth Advocacy for Reform and Development, on Tuesday gave Zec 72 hours threatening to approach the Electoral Court if the committee was not in place by then.
“Zec has failed to ensure that there are police committees in place so that any violence perpetrators are reported.
“It is important that the committee is put in place to ensure that perpetrators of crimes are brought to book.
Failure to bring up this committee, I will be approaching the Electoral Court within the next 72 hours to ask and then say can these elections be said to be free and fair,” Mliswa said.
He also threatened to take the law into his own hands to “hunt down” perpetrators of violence.
“We will hunt them down in their houses and we will make sure that they are brought to justice,” he said.
The former Hurungwe West lawmaker claimed that the ruling Zanu PF party was using drought relief maize as a vote-buying tool.
Norton constituency fell vacant when Zanu PF expelled former War Veterans minister Christopher Mutsvangwa.
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