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Challenge of the administration of the elections by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 28, 2008

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) notes that on 20 March 2008 an urgent High Court application was filed by the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) challenging several administrative decisions made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) concerning the 29 March 2008 harmonized elections.

In the case of Movement of Democratic Change & Ors vs. Zimbabwe Electoral Commission HC No. 1688/08 the applicants were challenging the failure by ZEC to "comply with provisions of the Electoral Act, as amended" or its misinterpretation of the same Act.

The main challenges made by the Movement of Democratic Change were as follows:-

• That the MDC was denied a hard copy and electronic copy of the voters' roll. ZEC is alleged to have argued that hard copies of the roll would also only be available after the 29th of March (election date) as their production centre was too busy. The MDC have been denied the voters' roll which roll is crucial to their preparation for elections.
• That the MDC was being denied an election agent for each of its four candidates (Presidential, House of Assembly, Senatorial and Local government) at each polling station.
• That ZEC had not established enough polling stations, especially for Harare and Bulawayo.
• That MDC had not been allowed representation at the National Collation Centre by at least ten of its election agents.
• That ZEC had not provided information, on the tenth day before polling day, on the company printing the ballot papers, the identity of applicants for postal ballots and the number of postal ballot papers issued.
• That the provisions of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of the Electoral Act) (Number 2) Regulations 2008 (Statutory Instrument 43/2008) imposing police officers at polling stations be declared null and void.

On 26 March 2008 Justice Uchena passed judgment in the matter, dismissing the application. The Honorable Judge highlighted some of the following points in dismissing the application:-

That the MDC failed to prove that they had in fact paid the required fee to obtain the voters' roll. He ruled that the cheque paid out by the MDC to ZEC was in fact not legal tender as the $42 billion paid therein exceeded the cheque limit at the time.

1. That the law does indeed allow an election agent for each candidate into a polling station, which point of law has been agreed to by the parties. Thus there was no need to make a declaratory order on the issue of election agents as the correct position had been reached by the parties.
2. That the 2nd Schedule to the Electoral Act provides that election agents and candidates must be invited to observe the proceedings at the National Collation Centre and take notes there from, thus there was no need to grant an order in favour of the applicants in this regard.
3. That the printing of ballot papers is an administrative function of ZEC which function the Court cannot readily interfere with. Further, there was no law entitling applicants to information concerning the printing of ballot papers.
4. That the applicants should have gone to the Chief Elections Officer to inspect the applications for postal votes and only come before the courts where they had been denied such inspection.

The court application was thus dismissed with costs being granted on the ordinary scale against the applicants.

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