The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed an appeal by MDC Alliance candidate Gift Konjana who was challenging the pronouncement of Zanu PF legislator Dexter Nduna as the winner of the Chegutu West seat during the 2018 elections.
Konjana had initially approached the High Court with a petition challenging Nduna’s election as Chegutu West MP arguing that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) had made mistakes in capturing the data from ward centres.
The petition was dismissed in October 2018 by High Court judge Justice Mary Dube, who had noted that Konjana had failed to present his case in a format required by the law. The ruling prompted Konjana to approach the Supreme Court to seek redress.
Unfortunately for him, Supreme Court judges, Justices Bharat Patel and Chinembiri Bhunu dismissed the appeal noting that while it had merit, it could not be heard before the court as it had exceeded the time limit stipulated by the Electoral Act. Justice Patel said:
It is accordingly ordered that the present appeal, having ceased to be properly before this court by reason of the time limit stipulated by Section 182 (2) of the Electoral Act having been exceeded, be and is hereby removed from the roll with each party to bear its own costs.
Justice Patel also ruled that the matter could not be heard before the Supreme Court since it had no authority to rule on the matter.
Konjana approached the courts after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had acknowledged the error that resulted in the “undue return” of Nduna into office.
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