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Special vote ruling expected Friday
Nomalanga Moyo, SW Radio Africa
July 18, 2013

http://www.swradioafrica.com/2013/07/18/special-vote-ruling-expected-friday/

Constitutional Court Judge George Chiweshe will Friday deliver judgment in the case in which the MDC-T want the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to provide the party with a list of all those who voted in the just-ended special vote.

Harrison Nkomo the lawyer for the MDC-T, and its deputy chairperson of elections Morgan Komichi, told SW Radio Africa that both sides presented their cases before Justice Chiweshe after ZEC reneged on an earlier agreement to supply the MDC-T with the list.

Last week the MDC-T and Komichi filed an application at the ConCourt challenging the holding of the special vote, citing disparities in the number of police officers that applied to take part.

The party wanted the exercise to be delayed while ZEC “verified and authenticated the findings on the almost 70,000 applications” from the force, which ordinarily has about 44,000 names on its payroll.

The MDC-T also wanted a copy of the voters’ roll for the special ballot, which ZEC said it could not supply. The Commission then agreed to make available a list with all the names and addresses of the applicants.

But when the two parties met Wednesday, ZEC’s legal team from the Attorney-General’s Office indicated that they had changed their minds, and were going to contest the MDC-T’s request for the list, leading to Thursday’s hearing.

The MDC-T application came amid widespread concerns about possible ballot stuffing after it emerged that force numbers were being issued to retired officers and ZANU PF youths, to facilitate their participation in the special vote held on 14th-16th July.

The three-day exercise was marred by chaos and delays, with reports that ballot papers were delivered very late at some stations. As a result ZEC had extended the polling from two, to three days, a move slammed as unconstitutional by the MDC-T.

Around 35,000 people are said to have voted, according to MDC-T official Komichi, who was manning the party’s election command centre at ZEC.

SW Radio Africa is Zimbabwe's Independent Voice and broadcasts on Short Wave 4880 KHz in the 60m band.

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