The battle lines are drawn for Tuesday 22 March, when legislators from all three political parties meet to elect a new speaker of parliament. This follows the shock decision by the Supreme Court to set aside the August 2008 election of MDC-T candidate Lovemore Moyo Veritas, who monitor legal and parliamentary affairs, said: The first business of the House when it resumes is to elect a new Speaker. In terms of both the Constitution and House of Assembly Standing Orders, the House cannot transact any business until a new Speaker has been elected.
Veritas have however pointed out that if preparations are not in place for an election to be held on Tuesday 22nd when the House is due to resume, the Clerk of Parliament may fix another date for the election.
As the parties measure their voting strengths in parliament, ZANU PF have focused their energies on blocking Moyo from voting, claiming he forfeited his Matobo North seat when he was elected speaker. Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma immediately nailed his flag to the ZANU PF mast, claiming Moyo was no longer an MP and could not vote in the election.
Lawyer Dr Alex Magaisa however posed the question of whether Moyo did in fact lose his seat. In other words, did he lose his seat when he became Speaker by virtue of an invalid election or does he revert to his position as an MP now that the Supreme Court says he was never properly elected in the first place?
It would be odd if a person in Moyos position were to suffer what would in effect be double-jeopardy on account of a flawed election that was not his fault. If a court of law finds that the election was irregular and invalid, it is tantamount to saying there was never an election in the first place, Magaisa argued.
For ZANU PF the strength of the legal arguments do not matter. With the judiciary, police, army and other state security agencies in their pocket they can do as they please. For example, recently released Nyanga North MP Douglas Mwonzora confirmed that several MDC-T MPs are being targeted for arrest before the vote, to reduce the partys voting strength. Two are already in custody.
The MDC-T say Lovemore Moyo will remain their candidate while the smaller MDC faction led by Welshman Ncube will field the losing candidate in 2008, Paul Themba Nyathi. ZANU PF do not have the numbers to elect their own candidate and are said to be still consulting. National chairman Simon Khaya Moyo is said to be a front runner, if they decide not to back Nyathi as they did last time.
Meanwhile on Tuesday Moyo gave up the cars that he was using as speaker of parliament. Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma said; “He handed over a 350 S Class (Mercedes Benz) and a Range Rover,” adding he will remain in the house Parliament was renting for him until month-end.
Post published in: News