Sengezo Tshabangu has filed an urgent High Court application seeking to bar recalled Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislators and councillors who successfully filed their nomination papers to contest in the 09 December by-elections, reported CITE.
The self-styled CCC interim secretary general through his lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri argued that the recalled CCC members had ceased to be members of CCC and therefore could not represent the same party in the by-elections. Uriri said:
We can confirm that the application is being filed, remember that these people were recalled by the CCC.
They challenged their recall in the High Court, the High Court upheld their recall.
As a result, we know for a fact that they ceased to be members of parliament on account of their recall by CCC.
They then proceeded to file nomination papers under CCC, the very same party that had recalled them. Our law knows no such absurdity.
The party that recalled them did not sign their nomination papers, they were improperly nominated and we will be seeking that they be expunged from the list of those who nominated such that they would not be on the ballot paper.
CCC lawyer Obey Shava said he was yet to receive the court papers. He said:
I am going to look for the court papers and see the basis of their application only then will I be in a position to formulate an opinion after consulting my client.
Meanwhile, ahead of the 23 August harmonised elections, the courts refused to entertain the Nelson Chamisa-led CCC’s petition on a similar case.
In July 2023, the High Court dismissed an appeal by CCC against forty-one (41) individuals who fraudulently filed nomination papers as members of the party.
The CCC claimed that 20 of the “fraudsters” filed nomination papers for National Assembly seats while the other 21 individuals filed for local authority seats.
However, High Court Judge Justice Neville Wamambo dismissed the appeal application saying the papers had nothing suspicious.
