MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora says he is confident that he will succeed in his Constitutional Court (ConCourt) challenge against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s delimitation report.
Mwonzora is seeking an order declaring the gazetted delimitation report null and void and for it to be redone.
Speaking in an interview with NewsDay, Mwonzora said he also seeking the ConCourt to order President Emmerson Mnangagwa to proclaim election dates only after the delimitation report has been resubmitted. He said:
The Constitutional Court last week gave us leave to direct access, meaning that we were given the right to appear before the full bench of the Constitutional Court in our challenge for the delimitation.
We have been able to do that and we are confident from the points we have raised we are going to succeed.
We are asking the ConCourt for three things; to declare the delimitation report as invalid, to order ZEC to redo the delimitation, and to order the President to proclaim election dates after the delimitation report has been resubmitted.
We are very confident about the points we have raised. Our application was judged not to be unnecessarily argumentative and we think we are going to succeed.
If Mwonzora’s application succeeds, this would mean that elections will be held using the old boundaries, or worse still, it will result in the postponement of the general elections that are due between 26 July and 26 August 2023.
Analysts have criticised Mwonzora’s court application saying the timing and motive were suspicious.
Since Mwonzora became the leader of the MDC-T, the party has failed to win a single parliamentary or local authority seat in by-elections held since 2022.
Independent election watchdog, Election Resource Centre (ERC) recently said postponing general elections for whatever reason would be unconstitutional.
More: Pindula News