THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) says opposition Labour Economists and African Democrats leader Linda Masarira's High Court application challenging the rejection of her nomination papers lacks merit.
Masarira's bid to contest for presidency hit a snag after she failed to pay US$20 000 or its equivalent in local currency when the nomination court sat on June 21 due to bank transaction limits.
“The appeal is not merited. The appellant attended at nomination court and sought to use the RTGS system of payment for nomination fees. She presented an application for the transfer of funds to the fourth respondent (Zec) without the corresponding confirmation of whether the application had been effected by her bank.
“She then sought to use the ZIPIT system to make payment of nomination fees. Her transaction limit on her bank account for the month was, however, inadequate to meet the nomination fees for presidential candidacy using the ZIPIT platform. There was no insistence that the appellant effect payment in USD. Payment in USD was one payment method available to her at her election,” Zec said in a notice of opposition filed last week.
Zec argued that the Press statement issued before the sitting of the nomination court did not apply in a circumstance where a candidate was unable to present proof of payment to the nomination officer on nomination day or had not had challenges with its POS machines.
‘’The appellant had done neither. Accordingly, the appeal lacks merit as the appellant failed to satisfy the peremptory requirements of nomination, on nomination day as required under ss46 and 47 of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13], and it should be dismissed with costs,’’ Zec said.
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Zimbabwe is set to hold harmonised elections on August 23, 2023.