The Supreme Electoral Court has rejected the petition of the MDC-T candidate for Nkai North constituency, President Ndlovu, who challenged incumbent Member of Parliament Sithembiso Nyoni’s victory in last year’s election.
Last year, Ndlovu alleged that Nyoni, who was the Zanu Patriotic Front party’s candidate and is now the Minister of Industry and Trade, won her election through corrupt and electoral malpractices such as systematically removing posters and billboards, and intimidating voters into voting for her by moving around in Voting centers. During voting hours and registering voters’ names.
The MDC-T candidate wanted Nyoni’s win to be annulled, with the court declaring that she had not been elected on August 23, 2023, and that her seat in the National Assembly was vacant. An order directing the Speaker of the National Assembly to notify the President of the existence of a vacancy in Nkayi North.
However, on 15 February 2024, Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Christopher Dube Banda, dismissed the MDC-TX application with costs saying it was fatally flawed and invalid.
“Preliminary points on non-compliance firstly with rule 21 of the Electoral (Applications, Appeals and Petitions) Rules 1995, that the form used is irregular and secondly failure to provide security within the timescale prescribed under section 168(3) is upheld,” the judge said. “.
“The election petition is fatally defective, invalid, and is hereby dismissed with costs.”
Justice Dube Banda declared that in accordance with Section 171(3) of the Electoral Act in the general elections held on 23 August 2023, Nyoni was duly elected as MP for Nkai North.
In his application, he named MDC-T candidate Nyoni as the first respondent, Mandla Ndlovu of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) as the second respondent, independent candidate Sithabisiwe Matema as the third respondent, and the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zimbabwe as the fourth respondent. , ZEC as the fifth respondent while respondents six to 13 are Nyonye polling agents, whom he pleaded guilty to having committed corrupt practices leading to the filing of his petition.
Ndlovu claimed that the Central Electoral Commission failed to conduct the elections in Nkayi North in accordance with the principles set out in the Electoral Act in relation to auxiliary electors, as a large number of voters deemed to be auxiliary electors were not eligible as auxiliary electors but the voters unduly influenced the casting of their votes in Nyoni .
“More than 1,500 voters were helped to vote, a figure that is more than 12 percent of the people who cast ballots. “Not only is this number completely unrealistic, given the very high levels of literacy in North Nkai, but also the behavior of the CEC,” he said. “It was not compatible with Section 58 of the Election Law.”
“The votes of more than 1,500 people who received assistance cannot be considered as a free choice of the electors concerned. Consequently, there was significant non-compliance with Section 59 of the Electoral Act, which affected the result as there is reasonable doubt as to who would have won the election had these electors voted either Without assistance, strictly in relation to Article 59 of the Electoral Law.
Regarding Nyoni’s alleged corruption and electoral malpractices, Ndlovu said before voting day and during the last week of the campaign, one of her clients led a systematic campaign to remove his billboards and posters.
“I did this at Somthanyelo Business Center and again at Gweluchina Business Centre. These billboards were removed all over the constituency and clearly damaged my campaign and affected the result. Many potential voters in the affected areas may have thought that I had withdrawn from the race. More importantly, he intimidated voters and made them believe that my candidacy represented a danger to them.”
Ndlovu said Nyoni was declared the winner after obtaining 5,492 votes, while he came in second place with 4,065 votes.
“The difference between us was less than 1,500,” the MDC-TAS candidate said, claiming that if there had been compliance with the electoral law, he would have won the election.
However, in her notice of opposition, Nyoni described Ndlovu’s petition as “nothing more than a fishing expedition amounting to frivolous and vexatious litigation”.
Nyoni said the MDC-Texas candidate’s petition “contains absolutely no evidence that people who have been deemed auxiliary voters are ineligible.”
The minister added that the accusations against ZEC are “baseless, baseless and scandalous.”
“I wonder where exactly the petitioner got his assertion that Nkai North district has very high levels of literacy and that the people helped by the IEC were not illiterate,” Nyoni said.
She also denied instructing her agents to remove his billboard and posters and questioned why she did not report it to CITE police
