Political Reporter
Several candidates from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) are facing disqualification from the upcoming August 23 election after they failed to submit their nomination papers on time.
The deadline for submitting nomination papers was 1600 hours on 21 June 2023. However, a number of CCC candidates failed to meet the deadline, either because they did not have the required signatures or because they did not submit their papers in the correct format.
The ruling ZANU PF party has since released a statement arguing that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) should not accept the nomination papers of 15 CCC candidates who failed to submit their nomination papers on time.
“In short, the CCC candidates referenced above were not in court with signed nomination papers and a nomination fee by the time the Nomination Court closed at 4 p.m. on June 21, 2023. As the above will show, the Nomination Court sat on June 22, 2023, again in contravention of sections 46(7) and (8) of the Electoral Act.
"The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has no legal right to accept the nominations referred to from candidates who were not within the court by 4 p.m. on June 21, 2023. Further, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had no legal right to sit as a Nomination Court on June 22, 2023, to receive and accept nomination papers from the CCC candidates referred to above,” reads the ZANU PF statement.
According to ZANU PF, failure by CCC candidates to submit their nomination papers on time was due to the ‘structureless, constitutionless, and banking accountless organisation that CCC is’.
Affected CCC candidates include, Gift ‘Ostallos ’Siziba (Pelandaba/Tshabalala candidate), Pashor Sibanda (Cowdray Park candidate), Obert Manduna (Nketa candidate) and Watson Nicola (Bulawayo South candidate), among many others.
Political analyst, Terrence Chipwanya said that the CCC candidates have themselves to blame, as they failed to put their house in order before the nomination date.
“CCC candidates have themselves to blame. They were given time to submit their nomination papers, but they chose to arrive late at the Nomination Courts”, said Chipwanya.
