Zimbabwe holds special elections for nine seats after opposition lawmakers disqualified

(9 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Harare - 9 December 2023
1. Various residents of Mabvuku protesting against court ruling banning opposition members of parliament from participating in by-election, UPSOUND (English) "Bring back our MP"
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Innocent Virimayi, opposition activist and resident of Mabvuku:
"So to my surprise today, I was supposed to be in my polling station where I was entitled to be, which is Tsinhirano BA. So it's closed. They uplifted all the tents, they uplifted everything, they went away with it. Later on we heard that they were saying (Scott) Sakupwanya is the member of Parliament of Mabvuku Tsinhirano. We are now surprised. Who voted for him? Are we now in the 16th century whereby people are having kingdom, we are not surprised."
3. Wide of candidate posters on wall
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi, opposition candidate for Mabvuku constituency:
"We are very angry about these things. How can you then come to impose a candidate upon the one who was elected? I was duly elected on the 23rd (August). And in that instance, I still remain and I remain the people's darling. You can take me out of the parliament and out of every governing institution but you will never take me out of the people, the hearts and mind of people of Mabvuku."
5. Wide sign post reading (English): "Mabvuku District Office"
6. Wide of people in street
STORYLINE:
Zimbabwe held special elections on Saturday for nine seats in Parliament after opposition lawmakers were removed from their positions and disqualified from running again.

The opposition called it an illegal push by the ruling ZANU-PF party to bolster its parliamentary majority and possibly change the constitution.

This may allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 81, who was reelected for a second and final term in August amid international and regional criticism, to run for another term.

All nine opposition lawmakers from the Citizens Coalition for Change party that were removed were elected in the national vote in August.

But an official claiming to be the secretary-general of the party recalled them from their positions in the weeks after that election.

CCC leader Nelson Chamisa said the official, Sengezo Tshabangu, held no position with the party and his instructions should be ignored.

But Zimbabwean courts recognized Tshabangu's authority, ruled to remove the opposition MPs and declared them on Thursday ineligible to run.

“This is not an election. This is not democracy,” opposition deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba told The Associated Press.

Another late-night court ruling Friday left the ZANU-PF candidate set to win one of the seats in the capital, Harare, uncontested.

The CCC said on the eve of the special elections that it had launched an appeal with the Supreme Court, demanding that eight of its candidates appear on the ballots.

It didn’t list a name for the Harare seat.

The main opposition party said the removal of its lawmakers is a brazen attempt by the ruling party to increase its control in Parliament and has accused ZANU-PF, which has been in power since the southern African country's independence in 1980, of using the courts to help it do that.

The CCC said ZANU-PF was using Tshabangu and the courts to “decimate” the opposition.

“The battle lines have been clearly drawn,” the CCC said Saturday in a statement on social media site X.

“The actions of the court officials who contributed to the demise of democracy in Zimbabwe will be recorded in the country’s history.”



Saturday’s special elections are just the start.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metad....ata/youtube/ccdc5402