Zimbabwe court nullifies Kasukuwere’s presidential candidacy

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AA) - A Zimbabwe High Court Judge David Mangotahas barred ex-president Robert Mugabe’s loyalist Savior Kasukuwere from standing as a presidential candidate during elections scheduled for next month.

Briefing journalists after the judgment, Lewis Uriri, lawyer to Lovedale Mangwana, a Zimbabwean citizen who challenged Kasukuwere’s candidacy, said the high court ordered Kasukuwere to stop masquerading as a presidential candidate in any way as he was no longer a registered voter.

Kasukuwere who had successfully filed his nomination papers to run for presidency during next month’s elections, is in exile in South Africa after he fled from Zimbabwe following a coup that toppled late former Zimbabwean President Mugabe.

“One of the qualifications of a candidate for the presidential election is that they ought to be registered as a registered voter and the law is that if you are not ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe for at least 18 months then you are deemed to have ceased to be a registered voter,” Uriri said.

Added Uriri: “So, Mr. Kasukuwere ceased by operation of law to be a registered voter and consequently ceased to run for or to occupy the office of the president of the Republic and so the court has declared that the acceptance of his nomination papers by the nomination court sitting at Harare was invalid and that consequently he cannot run for the office the president of the Republic of Zimbabwe.”

Mr. Uriri also said the former Zimbabwean government minister “has been barred or interdicted from holding himself out as a candidate in this election whether physically or by any form of media whatsoever.”

Kasukuwere’s lawyers however said they will appeal the decision by the high court.