Dear Advocate Gutu,

I have read your comments published in The Herald regarding the violence at the MDC-T Extra-Ordinary Congress. You sound knowledgeable on the point that once the Congress process commences, candidates become equal and no candidate has superior powers over the other.

However, you may have missed the video footage where an announcement was made for anyone who was not a polling agent to leave the floor when Dr. Khupe and Senator Komichi were raising issues. Security were instructed to remove people. “Security, buritsai vanhu vese except ma polling agents”.  

I assume this announcement was made by the members of the Electoral Body, who were supposed to be listening to the complaints and addressing them. The security personnel were so vicious it would have been unsafe for a traumatized Dr. Khupe to insist. 

So, if everyone had been told to go out, who was left behind voting? Just Mwonzora’s supporters? Effectively, whoever announced that people be moved out also effectively stopped the election process, and only resumed it after Dr. Khupe had left.

It was at that point that Dr. Khupe went to the podium to announce the stopping of the violent process. So in my view, due to the Electoral Body seemingly uninterested in intervening, I guess Dr. Khupe has no choice but do what she did. Remember she had Supreme Court authority to manage things until 31 December 2020.

I am not sure if there were some women in the electoral body who could not raise a voice

Let us be objective in our analysis of things.

Kennedy Kaitano

Video footage here   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVXSlorrZ_E