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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2012 23:22 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2012 23:22 |
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 Zimbabwe's new electoral court has reversed one of its very first judgements allowing a jailed opposition lawmaker to run in elections in his constituency that were to have been held at the end of April, state media reported on Sunday.
Roy Bennett, one of three white Zimbabweans who hold seats in parliament, is serving a one-year prison term for shoving the justice minister during a heated debate in parliament in May last year. The reversal in the court ruling means that Bennett's wife, Heather, will run for the elections in her husband's place in the eastern Chimanimani constituency where he won victory in the last parliamentary elections in 2000. Electoral court Judge Tendai Uchena on March 15 ordered that voting in Chimanimani be delayed by a month to allow the incarcerated deputy to run for the elections but the decision was reversed after the election commission challenged the ruling. "The election in Chimanimani constituency, which had been postponed by the judgement of the 15th of March 2005, shall proceed as initially scheduled," chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi was quoted as saying by the Sunday Mail in a ruling issued on Thursday. The court went back on its decision after President Robert Mugabe criticised it as "absolute nonsense". "I don't understand the court's decision. We will study the decision and appeal against it," Mugabe said just two days after the judgement was handed down. The electoral court was set up this year after Mugabe amended the country's laws to allow for the establishment of a court to handle electoral disputes. Bennett is serving a year-long jail sentence imposed by parliament last October for manhandling Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a heated debate on land seizures.  CONTINUES BELOW "We can't be held to ransom by a man who is in prison. That is absolute nonsense," said Mugabe, urging his supporters to "proceed" with poll preparations "as if nothing happened." MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai held a rally in the area, introducing Heather as the party's candidate for the parliamentary elections on Thursday, Zimbabwe's sixth elections since independence in 1980. Bennett early this month lost a court bid to win early release from jail. Zimbabwean voters go to the polls on Thursday for elections that Mugabe's government has assured a southern African regional bloc will take place in a free and fair environment. The MDC contends that conditions are tilted in favour of the ruling party which has the state machinery at its disposal. Elections held in 2000 and 2002 in Zimbabwe were marred by violence and allegations of fraud and vote-rigging, compounding a political crisis in the southern African country that has been ruled by the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) for 25 years. - Sapa-AFP TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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