The Douglas Mwonzora led MDC-T has expressed disappointment over Tuesday Constitutional Court ruling which confirmed Zanu PF’s Dexter Nduna as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Chegutu west despite losing to Gift Konjana.
Nduna lost to Konjana in the 2018 parliamentary election for Chegutu West but was erroneously declared the winner forcing the latter to approach the courts seeking remedy culminating in a Constitutional Court appeal.
In an interview with 263Chat following the judgment MDC-T spokesperson Witness Dube said they were disappointed because a legal technicality had stood in the way of a straightforward case.
“As a party we are greatly disappointed by the outcome of the judgment simply because a legal technicality managed to stand in the way of what we thought was a straightforward case. ZEC admitted to have made an error, and we would have thought that was enough to award Gift Konjana his rightful position as the Member of Parliament for his people.
“The technicality was that the constitutional court could not entertain a constitutional argument which Gift Konjana had not pursued in the lower courts. I have spoken to him already and he remains undeterred, and is already focusing on the way forward seeing that restarting the cycle may only result in a moot judgment. As a party we respect the rule of law, and will abide by its decisions. We will however get counsel from our legal team on how to proceed with the matter, for posterity sake,” said Dube.
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled against an appeal by Konjana seeking reversal of the outcome despite the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) admitting that it had made an error. ZEC said it was powerless to reverse the outcome.
