By Thelma Wandayi
Labour, Economists and African Democrats (LEAD) President Linda Masarira has filed an appeal in the Electoral Court Division of the High Court of Zimbabwe, seeking to overturn the decision of the Nomination Court to reject her nomination as a candidate for election to the office of the President.
Masarira’s nomination as a Presidential Candidate was foiled after the Presiding officer of the nomination court rejected her Real Time Gross Transfer Settlement (RTGS) as a form of payment and insisted that she pays in United States Dollars or Using the ZIPIT platforms.
However ,Masarira’s ZIPIT permits a limit of Z$2,500,000,00 per month and her card limit was Z$1,500, 000,00 per day making it impossible for her to pay her nomination fee.
“In an interview with this publication, Masarira said, “On the 21st of June 2023 I went to submit my nomination forms at The ZEC High Court where the presidential candidates were submitting their forms. My papers were submitted, verified, accepted and filed. My predicament started when I wanted to do the local currency transfer, I had enquired in the morning how much it was, because rates had changed the day before and after the rates had change. I realized that my money was short 28 million and ran around to find the balance”.
“By 3pm I had the total amount and when I came back to make the payment we realized there was a new challenge of the bank limits. The bank limits from my bank are 2.5 million a month for ZIPIT which they were accepting and for swipe it was 1.5 million a day. I requested to do an RTGS transfer and they said it would not reflect on midnight the 21st of June, so I could not go ahead and do it, I went back to the presiding officer who told me that they were only accepting ZIPIT transfers or swipe. I then asked them that I needed that in writing but they said l could not, but I could approach the electoral court for an appeal.
“Yesterday on the 22nd of June around 3pm, ZEC supposedly issued a statement that they had extended for those who hadn’t processed their payments on the 21st. I only saw the statement around 25 past three, I was far away from town, but had to rush get to the nomination court at exactly 16:50. I was at nomination court, when I got there they had already packed, the ZEC presiding officer said there had not even seen the statement that they had been an extension, she said.
“I eventually called the ZEC Chief Elections Officer Silaigwana who advised me to that, I was not in the category of the people who had been stated in the statement as they only wanted those who had proof of payment or who had problems with their cards,” she added.
So as of today my lawyers have filed the appeal and have gone to file .I await to hear if the file was successful.
Masarira went on to bemoan the plight of women in Zimbabwean politics citing that there were generally thrown at the peripheries of the political realm.
“My journey has not been easy, women are generally elbowed out of active politics in this country systematically. It’s either exorbitant rates for women to participate as presidents or parliamentary candidates considering the harsh economic climate and currency for activity.
“We as women of Zimbabwe demand a fair and an equal ground to participate in the political economy we feel discriminated and we have our constitutional rights violated as the Section 56 of the constitution speaks about equality before the law and non-discrimination,” she said.
See Court papers filed by Masarira’s Lawyers: Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni below:
