Number of Zimbabwe’s presidential candidates down to 11 after Supreme Court ruling

The number of candidates contesting in Zimbabwe’s presidential election has dropped to 11 after the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by former senior ruling party official Saviour Kasukuwere, who had intended to run as an independent candidate.

The High Court had ruled in early July that Kasukuwere was not eligible to contest the Aug. 23 election since he had not been ordinarily resident in the country for more than 18 months and had thus stopped being on the voters’ roll.

That followed an application by a private citizen, Lovedale Mangwana, who approached the High Court arguing that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should not have accepted Kasukuwere’s nomination papers on June 21 since he had ceased to be a registered voter.

The High Court upheld the application, but Kasukuwere appealed to the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal Friday morning.

Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Nick Mangwana posted on social media Friday morning saying that Mangwana had won his case at the Supreme Court.

State broadcaster ZBC also confirmed the development, quoting Kasukuwere’s chief election agent Jackie Sande as saying that the court had said the appeal lacked merit.

Sande said the dismissal of the appeal is not the end of the road for Kasukuwere and that his legal team had prepared contingent plans.

“This is definitely not the end of the road. We’re still persisting with the fight to be included, to see president Saviour Kasukuwere included on the ballot,” she said.