Tendai Biti Faces Recall From Parliament
MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti, together with several other People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislators, could be recalled from Parliament.
The PDP legislators, who were elected to Parliament under the MDC Alliance banner in the 2018 elections, lost their bid to remain in Parliament after the High Court ruled this week that they can all be recalled from their positions.
High Court judge, Justice Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba, ruled on Thursday that the PDP faction led by Lucia Matibenga had the power to recall the party’s MPs and councillors who have joined the post-election MDC Alliance.
Chirawu-Mugomba, in an extempore judgment, ruled that once a person supported another party, this automatically translated to “self-expulsion” from the party.
Speaking to the Daily News on Monday, PDP lawyer Simon Simango said:
The judge delivered an extempore judgment and said that according to the PDP constitution, clause 6:4 if a member joins or supports another political party, that individual automatically ceases to belong to PDP.
So, here we are talking about the likes of Harare East MP, Biti, who is the current vice president of the MDC Alliance.
By operation of that clause, he automatically expelled himself from the PDP. This judgment sets the pace for recall of MPs who had been seconded to represent the MDC Alliance.
Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume, who was in the PDP faction that included Biti among other legislators and councillors, said yesterday that they had since appealed against the High Court ruling at the Supreme Court.
When the MDC Alliance was formed under the leadership of the late former MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, Biti and Matibenga went separate ways.
Biti and others joined the coalition under Tsvangirai, who was succeeded by Nelson Chamisa when he died a few months before the elections.
Matibenga and her faction joined hands with the Joice Mujuru-led People’s Rainbow Coalition (PRC) ahead of the 2018 general elections.
