High Court sets dates for MDC electoral petitions

Zimbabwe’s High Court has set dates for 14 electoral petitions filed by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) challenging the June
parliamentary election results in 38 constituencies, the ‘Daily News’
reported on Wednesday. The trials, to be heard in three sessions spread over
five months, are scheduled to begin on 9 January next year and to end on 11
May.

The MDC launched petitions in the High Court alleging there were irregularities in the 38 constituencies whose results it is challenging. The MDC, contesting an election for the first time since it was launched last year, won 57 seats against ZANU-PF’s 62. Among top ZANU-PF officials whose results are being challenged are Vice-President Simon Muzenda; Eddison Zvobgo, a former cabinet minister; Samuel Mumbengegwi, the minister of education; Herbert Murerwa, the minister of higher education and technology, and Francis Nhema, the minister of environment and tourism.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has accused some of the nation’s judges of racism and said the government will defy court rulings it considers unjust, the official ‘Herald’ newspaper reported on Wednesday. In a scathing attack made to a meeting of lawyers in the eastern mountain resort of Nyanga, Chinamasa said war veterans and the landless had no alternative but to continue seizing land, with likely loss of lives, if judges frustrated the government’s reform programme. Only six of Zimbabwe’s 30 judges are white.