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MDC-T special vote case dismissed by Justice Chiweshe
Nomalanga Moyo, SW Radio Africa
July 19, 2013

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On Friday Constitutional Court Judge George Chiweshe dismissed an MDC-T court bid querying the figures of police officers who voted in the special ballot held on July 14th-16th.

The MDC-T, as well as its elections official Morgan Komichi, also wanted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to provide the party with a list of all those who voted in the just-ended special vote.

Lawyers for both sides had to argue out their cases Thursday, after the Commission’s lawyers from the registrar-general’s office reneged on a previous mutual agreement to make the list available to the MDC-T.

But Komichi told SW Radio Africa that Justice Chiweshe dismissed the application with costs: “We were told the reasons for the ruling will follow.”

However, Komichi said he was not surprised by Chiweshe’s decision: “We knew even as we filed our application that our courts have become very unprofessional at election times.

“It does not matter whether you have all the evidence and witnesses to support your case, our judges will rule in favour of Zanu-PF. But we will continue fighting our cases in the courts because we are a law-abiding party.”

Komichi said it was clear from the reluctance to supply basic voter information, such as the list, that ZEC was being manipulated.

“This is not the ZEC we should have. It is obvious that someone else is running things and this is the army and the central intelligence just as they did in the last election in 2008,” Komichi added.

The MDC-T was challenging the 69,000 ballot papers prepared by the ZEC for the special vote for the police, comparing it with the figure of 44,000 provided by the Treasury for the number of police officers paid a monthly salary.

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

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