PRESIDENT Mnangagwa and other candidates vying for the highest office in the land have submitted their papers for consideration ahead of the sitting of the Nomination Court today, setting the stage for the harmonised elections on August 23.
The Nomination Court will today consider and accept candidates for Presidential, parliamentary and local authority elections.
The High Court in Harare will house the Nomination Court considering the Presidential candidates while it will sit at all the 10 provincial capitals for parliamentary candidates. Council offices across the country will be the venue for the Nomination Court to consider candidates for local authority elections.
President Mnangagwa’s papers were submitted some time ago in a display of the ruling Zanu PF party’s organisational acumen.
Opposition political parties have also submitted their papers before the sitting today.
In an interview yesterday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi confirmed President Mnangagwa’s submission of nomination papers.
“Yes we sent his papers for verification and have already completed all formalities.
“We just await the opening of the Nomination Court and finalisation of the processes,” he said.
In the same breath, opposition CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa and MDC-T leader Senator Douglas Mwonzora also filed their papers.
Speaking at a press conference in Harare yesterday, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chief elections officer Mr Utoile Silaigwana said all was set for the Nomination Court sitting.
“Nomination Court sitting is June 21 and June 22 will be a day reserved for the inspection of the nomination papers by anyone who wants to do so.
“We are happy to announce that we are set for tomorrow (today), the voters roll for the Nomination Court is ready and is now at the various court centres and there will be search facility to check the nominees and nominators.”
He said party leaders had been free to file their papers pending due diligence today.
Mr Silaigwana said names of successful candidates would be made public by the end of this month.
“You can file papers well before the Nomination Court sits and then there is a process to confirm whether you qualify so we can only officially say so once the Nomination Court has closed and processed and made the announcements.
“Soon after the sitting of the Nomination Court we will establish the multi-party liaison committees.
“We will then publicise a list of the nominated candidates by June 30, all polling stations will be made public 21 days before polling day,” he said.
Mr Silaigwana revealed that anomalies that had been identified by voters during the voters’ roll inspection exercise had been corrected.
“We had established 11 337 inspection centres across the country and we are happy to say the turnout was good.
“Indeed during the inspection of the voters’ roll, some anomalies were recorded, we can assure the electorate that the commission has rectified those anomalies that were identified by both the voters themselves and administratively by ourselves,” he said.
ZEC vice chairperson Ambassador Rodney Kiwa told The Herald last night that the electoral body was pulling all the stops to ensure the holding of elections would be above board and all due processes were followed.
“We’re fully prepared. Everything is in place. The responsibility for peaceful elections lies with every Zimbabwean, every political party, it’s leadership and followers alike, every candidate, civil society organisations and faith based organisations, our journalists, our security and law and order forces.
“Everyone. ZEC is playing its part in this regard through stakeholders’ engagement and voter education by various instruments including radio, television, print media, flyers etc. Together we can!” he said. – The Herald
