HARARE – The Constitutional Court has given parliament a seven-day ultimatum to review nomination fees for candidates seeking to contest for public offices in the upcoming general elections.
Constitutional Court judges made the ruling after hearing an application by Devine Mhambi Hove, who leads the opposition National Alliance of Patriotic and Democratic Republicans (NPDR).
Hove, who was represented by Prof Lovemore Madhuku, argued that Statutory Instrument 144 gazetted last year violated section 67 of the constitution which sets out political rights of Zimbabweans, including the right to “stand for public office and, if elected, to hold public office.”
The statutory instrument increased nomination fees for presidential candidates from US$1,000 to US$20,000, while nomination fees for candidates running for MP and Senate were increased from US$50 to US$1,000.
A seven-panel bench of the Constitutional Court chaired by deputy chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza agreed with Hove that parliament had failed in its duty to scrutinise the statutory instrument to ensure that it complied with the constitution.
Hove had argued: “Parliament failed to fulfil its constitutional obligation in one or two ways. First, I am not aware of any report by the Legal Committee that records that Statutory Instrument 144 of 2022 went the procedure in section 152(3)(c) of the constitution.
“If it turns out that Statutory Instrument 144 of 2022 did not go through the procedure in section 152(3)(c) of the constitution, that would be a textbook failure to fulfil a constitutional obligation.
“Secondly, and as an alternative, if Statutory Instrument 144 of 2022 went through the procedure in 152(3)(c) of the constitution, the fact that parliament did not consider that it infringed the rights of citizens provided for and protected by section 67 of the constitution is evidence of failure to ‘examine’ and ‘consider’ within the contemplation of the constitution.”
The Constitutional Court judges ordered parliament to review the Statutory Instrument by June 16.
Zimbabweans vote in watershed general elections on August 23, and opposition parties accused the ruling Zanu PF party of raising the nomination fees to deplete their election budgets.
