Zimbabwean court rejects opposition MPs bid to return to parliament

By Takunda Mandura

TRT Afrika, Harare

Zimbabwean High Court has dismissed an application by 23 MPs and nine senators from the opposition Citizen Coalition for Change legislators seeking their instatement in the parliament.

The MPs were recalled last month recalled by Sengezo Tshabangu, who claims to be the party's interim secretary general but the party says it did not authorise the recall. However, it has been approved by the speaker of the parliament who declared their seats vacant.

The judgment by Justice Munamato of the High Court on Saturday is seen as blow to the opposition CCC party which says it was studying the ruling for further action.

"We have received the judgment of the High Court, and our lawyers are still studying it. We will provide a comprehensive statement regarding the same,'' the party said in a statement.

It reiterated that Tshabangu who was behind the MPs' recall ''is not a member of CCC'' and that the party CCC, which is led by its candidate in the last presidential election Nelson Chamisa, ''has not initiated any recall of a Member of Parliament or Senate.''

By-elections

The lawmakers at the centre of the dispute include 14 MPs and nine senators. They had initially listed the National Assembly Speaker, the Senate President and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission as some of the respondents in their case but later withdrew their action against them.

By-elections are due to take place on December 9 in nine of the constituencies whose MPs have been recalled.

According the Zimbabwean electoral law, the country's president is obliged to call for by-elections once vacancies arise in parliamentary constituencies.

The latest political developments come about three months after the country's general elections in which incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second term against his main rival Nelson Chamisa of the CCC party.