MDC Alliance candidate forced to fork out $2 000 to claim Chegutu West seat
Samson Muchirahondo
Chegutu West National Assembly seat results have taken a new twist, with a winning MDC Alliance candidate now being forced to fork out $2 000 to file a report to electoral court to claim the seat after ZEC has erroneously admitted having declared a Zanu PF candidate as winner instead of the latter.
ZEC erroneously declared Zanu PF candidate for Chegutu West Dexter Nduna as the winner ahead of MDC Alliance’s Gift Konjana after an tabulation error occurred that prejudiced him of 120 votes erroneously awarded to one Simon Kache of UCADPGPZ.
The error was committed by the district election officer identified as Maisiri.
In an interview Konjana said he had no option besides securing the $2 000 needed to safeguard his victory.
“As of now its me who pays the $2 000 as per the dictates of the law, which I think is important at this juncture, the other issues will follow,” he said.
Mr Konjana, however said if he wins his case the money would be refunded.
“This is just a surety deposit, and a deposit will be refunded one day once l win my case,” he said.
However, there was no clearcut stance whether the deposit would be refunded or not in case of a defeat.
According to the supreme law of the land, once a person is declared a winner, no one other than the court can reverse that.What is now clear is that if Konjana is very sure that he won, he could go to court and push for either re-election or him being declared winner.
Initial results announced by ZEC as of V23 form the basis upon which the declaration was made Nduna won the seat by 10 932 votes ahead of Konjana who garnered 10 828. Yet after the anomaly has been rectified Nduna was trailing behind with four votes.
While, Konjani is pulling from his end, Nduna and his lawyers are also challenging the attempt to reverse the victory, saying the district election officer should be held liable for failing to execute duties properly and such a failure should not affect their victory.
