HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has proclaimed 11 November 2023 as the date on which by-elections shall be held for the Gutu West parliamentary constituency and four other rural district council wards where candidates died before last month’s general polls.
According to section 50 (1) (a) of the Electoral Act, when a duly nominated candidate for election for a constituency dies before the poll, proceedings of that election are nullified to pave way for a by-election.
Duly nominated candidates died in Gutu West as well as Kusile, Nkayi, Vungu, Zvimba rural district councils before national polls could be held on August 23 and 24 resulting in elections being suspended.
In an extraordinary gazette, Mnangagwa said the nomination court for the Gutu West by-election will sit on October 10 at Masvingo magistrates’ court in respect of the constituency.
The poll could not proceed as planned when independent candidate, Christopher Mutonhori Rwodzi, who had been duly nominated to contest the Gutu West seat, died in a road traffic accident.
Rwodzi, who was tourism deputy minister Barbra Rwodzi’s husband, had been barred from standing in Zanu PF primaries before deciding to stand as an independent.
John Paradza is Zanu PF’s candidate in the Gutu West by-election.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana has said another by-election was due on a date to be announced in Hurungwe Ward 24 following the death of the councillor who won in the August 23 poll.
