By Own Correspondent| Failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to avail the voter’s roll before the sitting of the Nomination Court resulted in failure of 8 MDC T candidates to satisfy the requirements to contest the forthcoming polls, ZimEye has learnt.

Spokesperson of the MDC T led by Dr Thokozani Khupe, Linda Masarira said 8 candidates from her party were deprived of their political right to participate in the forthcoming elections after it emerged that the prospective voters who had nominated them were not on the voters roll.

“The unavailability of the copy of a provisional voters’ roll on the nomination day left most of the opposition party prospective candidates without any choice but denied their registration.

The absence of some registered voters on the voters roll affected most of our rural constituency candidates as they could not travel back to their homes to get other signatures. Our candidate from Mbire constituency Mr Marungisa is one of the affected persons and seven others in Mashonaland central,” said Masarira.

Below is the full text of the statement by the MDC T.

The High court order, ordering Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to provide ERC with a copy of the provisional voters roll came too late.

An election indicates the existence of democracy in any nation, the electoral process paves way for democracy and democracy is a baby of a clear electoral process and free and fair elections.

Failure of any during preparations of so called democratic elections might and definitely denigrate the real essence of the credibility of the anticipated democratic process.

The call for the aspiring candidates to the nomination court brought joy to so many of them just a day before as well as early hours of the day with aspiring candidates vividly waiting for the ,” dream-come-true” as preparation for 2018 elections is now at length with only a few weeks left.

However the jovial mood and great expectations as Dickens the great author would say, were turned into sorrow, disappointments as well as need for clarity if truly ZEC was and is really ready to bring about the electoral democratic processes into existence.

The unavailability of the copy of a provisional voters’ roll on the nomination day left most of the opposition party prospective candidates without any choice but denied their registration and leaving the whole process as some of the nominators were not appearing on the voters roll.

The absence of some registered voters on the voters roll affected most of our rural constituency candidates as they could not travel back to their homes to get other signatures. Our candidate from Mbire constituency Mr Marungisa is one of the affected persons and seven others in Mashonaland central.

If clarity has failed at this early stages of election, what guarantee do fellow Zimbabweans possess that there is likely to have a free and fair election.

The ground has already started developing some loopholes, cracks and the atmosphere that is disadvantaging other political parties and making it a clear indication that the election ground ahead of us is not level?

The release of the judgement a day after the nomination court simply implies that the judgement is merely meant for the future elections not the 2018 one.

Hence the position taken by the High Court judgement today, though positive but its validity has been diluted as it has released it after the sitting of the nomination court. So many candidates have been left disadvantaged and it is a clear indication of an uneven electoral field.