Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
Members of Parliament Charlton Hwende, Prosper Mutseyami, Thabitha Khumalo and Senator Lilian Timveos are arguing in court that the Speaker of Parliament and President of the Senate erred in removing them as lawmakers on the basis of a letter written by Douglas Mwonzora, signing off as secretary general of the MDC-T party.<\/p>\n
Mwonzora acted on April\u2019s Supreme Court judgement on the MDC-T leadership dispute which said Nelson Chamisa, the former interim MDC-T leader who stood in elections in 2018 as leader of the MDC Alliance, breached his former party\u2019s constitution when he took the reins following the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2018.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court said Thokozani Khupe, who broke away from Chamisa and kept the MDC-T name with which she contested elections in 2018, should have been interim leader upon Tsvangirai\u2019s death. Supreme Court judges admitted their judgement was \u201cmoot\u201d and \u201cacademic\u201d, but went on to direct the MDC-T to hold elections within three months to elect Tsvangirai\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n
The MDC Alliance says the judgement is unenforceable because processes have long moved on, with both Khupe and Chamisa having held their respective party congresses to elect a new leadership.<\/p>\n
Mwonzora, defeated by Hwende in the race for secretary general in internal MDC Alliance elections in 2018, has seized on the Supreme Court ruling to re-instate himself to the position which he held before Tsvangirai\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The four lawmakers maintain that they participated in elections in July 2018 as members of the MDC Alliance party led by Chamisa, whereas the MDC-T party was a rival in the same election. Chamisa narrowly lost the presidential vote with over 2 million ballots cast in his favour, while Khupe polled just over 45,000 votes.<\/p>\n
The quartet on Friday petitioned the High Court for a declarator setting aside their expulsion, which they want declared \u201cwrong and unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda, the President of the Senate Mabel Chinomona, Parliament of Zimbabwe, Mwonzora, MDC-T leader Khupe and the MDC-T are all cited as respondents.<\/p>\n
The lawmakers say Mwonzora, himself a Senator for the MDC Alliance elected through proportional representation, had no authority to write the letter recalling them from Parliament.<\/p>\n
Mudenda and Chinomona \u201cacted unlawfully, in accepting a declaration from any other party other than a declaration from the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther having dealt with us for two and half years as MDC Alliance,\u201d they argue, Mudenda and Chinomona were \u201cestopped and barred from treating us any differently or giving us a new label or name without due process.\u201d<\/p>\n
They accuse Khupe and the MDC-T of making a \u201cfalse declaration\u201d by labelling them MDC-T members and purporting to exercise jurisdiction over them.<\/p>\n
The MDC-T \u201ccarried out an unconstitutional coup d\u2019\u00e9tat by usurping, and giving itself authority over our party the MDC Alliance itself\u201d, they argue, adding: \u201cIt ignored the fundamental legal position that a political party is a voluntary association whose rights and interests are protected by sections 56, 58 and 67 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2018, we voluntarily chose to be part of the MDC Alliance. The MDC-T and those who follow it chose a different route. No force of power can suddenly conflate us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawmakers say Mudenda and Chinomona \u201cdescended into a political arena and made a judgment on contested claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir decision and finding that we belong to the MDC-T was a quasi-judicial decision which they are not qualified to make,\u201d the lawmakers say, while dismissing the parliament leaders\u2019 actions as a \u201cfraud on the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mudenda and Chinomona \u201ccannot make the decision of merging two political parties,\u201d the lawmakers said, adding: \u201cThere is already in Parliament a party known as the MDC-T led by the 4th Respondent (Khupe). It has Members of Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa Press-Nigeria: Members of Parliament Charlton Hwende, Prosper Mutseyami, Thabitha Khumalo and Senator Lilian Timveos are arguing in court that the Speaker of Parliament and President of the Senate erred in removing them as lawmakers on the basis of a letter written by Douglas Mwonzora, signing off as secretary general of the MDC-T party. Mwonzora […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[622,615],"class_list":{"0":"post-23269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-hwende","10":"tag-khupe"},"yoast_head":"\n