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MDC condemns unilateral appointment of judges
Movement
for Democratic Change
May 21, 2010
The MDC condemns the
unilateral and arrogant appointment of George Chiweshe by Zanu PF
as the judge President of the High Court. The MDC views Chiweshe's
elevation as a clear reward after he presided in the rigging of
the 2008 presidential election when he was the chairman of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC). The reputation of Chiweshe has been
gravely undermined by his role in ZEC, which failed to administer
a free and fair election by withholding results for six weeks.
He actively
colluded in electoral malpractices which cost no less than 500 lives
and he proceeded to declare the election as free and fair. Zimbabwe
today languishes under an ill-fitting and ill-working inclusive
government which came about because of a failed election that Chiweshe
presided over and therefore grossly undermined democracy. Chiweshe's
run at ZEC casts him more as a political player than a judicial
official. To appoint Chiweshe as judge president is the ultimate
insult as it defies the fundamental Global
Political Agreement (GPA) principles of the rule of law which
are specifically enshrined in Article II.
The appointment of Chiweshe
as judge president can only serve to cast further doubt on a judiciary
which needs to work extremely hard in cleaning the thick cloud of
the fog of suspicion that it is politically compromised. In order
to ensure judicial independence, appointments to and within the
judiciary must be done in a manner that assures the general public
that political considerations are not the determinant.
Chiweshe's appointment
departs from this principle and is an attack on independence of
the judiciary, democracy and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.
Email mdcnewsbrief@gmail.com,
mdcpress@mweb.co.zw
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