The Supreme Court will on Wednesday, 02 August, hear an appeal by a dozen CCC candidates for the National Assembly who were barred from running in the 23 August 2023 general elections.

The date was fixed by the apex court following a case management meeting on Monday.
A lawyer for the candidates, Welshman Ncube, said the appeal has been set down for 2 PM on Wednesday.

Twelve voters allegedly linked to ZANU PF, each from Bulawayo’s 12 constituencies, filed simultaneous applications at the High Court to have the CCC candidates and five others disqualified from contesting in the upcoming general elections.

The applicants argued that the candidates filed their nomination papers after the 4 PM deadline on 21 June.

In an appeal filed at the Supreme Court on 28 July, the 12 CCC candidates raised nine grounds of appeal, citing Justice Bongani Ndlovu for granting an application that they say was based on “objectively established falsehoods.”

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the CCC candidates all opposed the applications which were consolidated into one because of similar facts.

ZEC argued that all candidates who were accepted had filed their papers by 4 PM.

The applicants relied on an internal ZEC document which has time stamps next to the names of candidates, arguing that the indicated times, all after 4 PM on 21 June, showed when CCC candidates filed their nomination papers.

ZEC, however, said the indicated times only showed when a candidate’s details were captured on their computer.

If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling by the High Court, it means that CCC cannot have any senators from Bulawayo or MPs under the youth and women’s quota.

This will be the case because the youth and women’s quotas are determined by the number of votes secured by National Assembly candidates.