High Court Reserves Judgement In Linda Masarira's Candidacy Appeal
High Court judge Justice Gladys Mhuri has reserved judgement in the matter where presidential aspirant Linda Masarira is challenging the rejection of her nomination papers.
Masarira had made an appeal challenging the decision of the Nomination Court to reject her nomination as a presidential candidate after she failed to raise the required US$20 000 fee.
The leader of the Labour, Economists and African Democrats (LEAD) said she wanted to pay using real-time gross settlement (RTGS), but the presiding officer insisted on cash or payment through the ZimSwitch Instant Payment Interchange Technology (ZIPIT) system.
Speaking in an interview with CITE’s Senzeni Ncube, Masarira’s lawyer, Andrew Makoni of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni legal practitioners said the judgement was reserved. He said:
So, judgement in the matter has been reserved by Justice Mhuri. We filed heads on Friday and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) given until tomorrow to file heads.
So, respondents number 1-4 then asked for time to also file their head of argument.
They will have the opportunity to file their heads of argument by tomorrow (Wednesday) 3 PM.
Linda was also given until Wednesday to file supplementary heads of argument.
After the filing of supplementary heads of argument, the judge will determine whether there be a need for an oral argument on the matter, if she feels that there is a need for an oral argument, she will then call the parties to argue on the restrictive points that she may want us to address on and otherwise she will be ready to give a judgement on the matter.
In her court papers, Masarira cited the Presiding Officer of the Nomination Court as the first respondent, the second respondent being the (ZEC) Chief Elections Officer, the third respondent being the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the fourth respondent being ZEC, the fifth respondent being Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the sixth respondent being Nelson Chamisa, seventh respondent is Douglas Togaraseyi Mwonzora, eighth respondent is Lovemore Madhuku while the ninth respondent is Saviour Kasukuwere.
If the court rules in Masarira’s favour, she will become the second female presidential candidate after UZA president Elizabeth Valerio won her appeal last week.
More: Pindula News
