Chiwenga Deals Chamisa A Heavy Blow

MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has been dealt a heavy political blow following the suspension of all by-elections to fill vacant posts of recalled Parliamentarians and Councillors.According to Statutory Instrument 225A of 2020, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga in his capacity as Health minister, has in terms of section 68 of the Public Health Act cancelled the holding of any by-election to fill vacancies in Parliament.“The Public Health (Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Regulations 2020, published in Statutory instrument 77 of 2020 (“the principal regulations”) are amended in section 3 (Declaration of Covid-19 as Formidable Epidemic disease”) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection 2:“(3) Pursuant to subsection (2), the holding of any by-election to fill a casual vacancy in Parliament or in a local authority is, for the period of the declaration of Covid-19 as a formidable epidemic disease, suspended, and if such any vacancy occured while such declaration is in force, no part of the declaration shall be counted for the purposes of section 158(3) of the Constitution,” it reads.Section 158(3) of the Constitution deals with the timing of elections and relates that polling in by-elections to Parliament and local authorities must take place within 90 days after the vacancies.The recalls of his Members of Parliament and local authority councillors have dealt him a huge blow as all elections to replace them have been frozen until the Covid-19 regulations are lifted. In a statement the MDC Alliance said: “The suspension of by-elections is a vicious assault on the will of the people and the greatest threat to our democracy in as many decades. This is fascism. Democracy is dead. The people must and will fight back to defend their votes.”Self-exiled and respected academic Jonathan Moyo described Chiwenga’s decision as an unconstitutional shame“Shame. The macho move is an unconstitutional bluster. Simple. It attacks the right to vote, enshrined under section 67 of the Constitution, and is discriminatory in that it deprives the affected constituencies of their right to be represented in Parliament; and is manifestly unreasonable,” he said. Nhau/Indaba