The Parliament Legal Committee (PLC) has endorsed the excessive election candidate nomination fees pegged by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for this year’s election without according the rest of the house an opportunity to debate and approve the Statututory Instrument.
The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) last week ordered the legislative house to review the fees which had been challenged through the apex court by an opposition leader who argued the hefty charges were illegal.
ConCourt gave parliament up to June 16, 2023 to conclude the matter.
The controversial nomination fees were gazetted August last year under Statutory Instrument 144 of 2022 which pegged presidential candidate fees at US$20,000 each, up from US$1,000 paid in the last election 2018, and US$1,000 (from US$50) for prospective candidates to national assembly seats.
However, in a non-adverse report that was not shown to the rest of the house Wednesday, parliament’s legal committee which was assigned to look into the matter rubberstamped the fees.
The committee comprises five legislators.
William Mtomba, who was acting speaker of the day, announced in parliament Wednesday that the report by PLC was conclusive, inviting strong protests from opposition MPs who were led by Innocent Gonese and Prince Dubeko Sibanda.
HORIZONTAL
Gonese said the court ordered parliament to review the SI and did not limit decision making of the crucial matter to a committee of just five individuals.
“It is a sub-Committee constituted by this House but has got to report to us. If it was delegated to look into this issue, it was just doing so on our behalf.
“Those five honourable members are not parliament,” Gonese said.
He added, “They cannot make a final decision on our behalf on a matter which has been specifically referred to us as an institution by the Constitutional Court…it is not appropriate for the Chair to rule that the matter has already been concluded because it has not been concluded.”
Sibanda also demanded the tabling of the report for it to be scritunised by the entire house.
“You smuggled a report and hid it somewhere. Nobody in this house, nobody outside knows the reason, the justification behind the finding of that committee.
“As a result, it is in the public interest, and as we demand, we hereby do as a house that let the report be tabled.
“Once that report is tabled, then we will know if the House agrees with the findings of its committee. Why are we hiding it? What is it that we are hiding? Indeed, you have been misled by the Clerk.
The Binga legislator said “the five Members were simply delegated a duty to scrutinize.
“After scrutinizing that Statutory Instrument (SI), this House is empowered to demand that that non-adverse report be presented here.”
But acting speaker William Mtomba dug in saying the report will not be debated.
“I also would want to inform you that the PLC is constituted by Members of this House. It is a leg of Parliament, a Committee that has been chosen from the learned lawyers, who know the law of this country.
“So, if they came up with their findings and they reported to this Parliament, now we are saying the House is not happy with that. I think it is very important that with all due respect, you can actually approach the court because the Parliamentary Legal Committee was instituted by this Parliament.
“We are not all lawyers. Those Members who form the Parliamentary Legal Committee are lawyers. So whatever they bring to this Parliament, we actually feel that it is coming from competent lawyers of this nation”.