Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Douglas Mwonzora says his party’s application to the Constitutional Court challenging the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) final delimitation report was made of its own volition, contrary to suggestions by other opposition political parties that it was acting on instructions from the ruling party to buy time.
Mwonzora says the court challenge is in the best interest of the country as it seeks to ensure that the forthcoming elections are credible.
“Contrary to sentiments from some quarters, this application was conceived solely by the MDC and acting on its own accord. In this regard, the MDC was guided by what is in the best interests of the nation. It is not in the best interest of Zimbabwe that the country has unfree and unfair elections. In the past, unfree and unfair elections have led to bloodshed as well as deep resentment and social strife among our people,” Mwonzora said, in a statement.
He also stated that the poor quality of elections contributes to Zimbabwe’s international isolation, resulting in social and economic stagnation.
“The poor quality of our elections contributes to Zimbabwe’s international isolation, which in most cases result in social and economic stagnation, something that is certainly not in the best interest of our beloved nation. Together with other strategies the ConCourt application is designed to ensure that Zimbabwe will never have disputed elections again and that the will of the people is observed and respected,” he said
The MDC is challenging the final delimitation report on the basis that ZEC did not take into account the final results of the population census making it legally impossible to do any delimitation without knowing the number of people in the country and in each ward or constituency.
It also alleges that a total of 119 out of the 210 constituencies are in violation of the 20% variance provided for in section 161 of Zimbabwe’s Constitution and that gazetting of the final Delimitation Report by the President was illegal in that his proclamation did not give the names and boundaries of wards and constituencies as required by the Constitution.
The MDC adds that Polling stations across the country have been named using a sequence of numbers and letters which will be impossible for the ordinary Zimbabweans save for ZEC to identify these locations anywhere in Zimbabwe.
This matter will be heard on the 8th of May 2023 before the full Constitutional Court bench comprising of seven judges.
