The Daily News (Harare)
15 March 2005
Harare — Zimbabwe's Electoral Court today ruled that incarcerated Movement for Democratic Change MP Roy Bennett is eligible to contest the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 31. He will now square up against ruling Zanu PF's Samuel Undenge.
Justice Tendai Uchena, in the first case to be heard before the court, said Bennett was not a criminal as his offence, that of pushing Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa in parliament, was not covered in the criminal statutes. The court ruling comes after Bennett had appealed to the Election Court against the nullification of his candidacy.
Bennett's legal counsel, Beatrice Mtetwa, said Justice Uchena had ordered that the decision of the nomination court, which sat on February 24, be set aside.
"The election day for the Chimanimani constituency has therefore been moved to April 30 to allow all parties time to campaign," said Mtetwa. The judge ordered the constituency election officer to hold the nomination court for the constituency on April 4.
Bennett had submitted his papers to stand on an MDC ticket in the constituency, but the election officer ruled him ineligible saying he was serving a prison sentence. Under Zimbabwe's constitution, if one is sentenced to a prison term of six months and above, one cannot stand as a parliamentary candidate.
Bennett's wife, Heather, immediately filed her papers to stand as a candidate in the March 31 poll. She would have been representing the constituency on an MDC ticket.
Bennett, the only white rural MP, is serving a 12-month prison sentence imposed by Parliament for a scuffle he was involved in with Justice minister Chinamasa. He is serving out the sentence at a rural prison in the backwoods of Mutoko, some 220km north-east of the capital Harare.
Ruling ZANU PF party members used their superiority in numbers to send Bennett to jail under the Parliamentary Privileges and Immunities Act which empowers the House to discipline or even jail its members.
"Said Mtetwa: "Bennett, under the constitution of Zimbabwe, has the right to contest the election. He will of course be fighting an unfair fight as he will not be released to campaign for the poll. But it will be interesting if he wins the seat from the confines of his prison cell."
All efforts by Bennett to be released before the March 31 poll date have to date been in vain. Bennett had argued in the High Court that because his sentence could only be up to March 30 - the day Parliament steps down - or a total of about 153 days from the date he was committed to jail last October, he should therefore have been released earlier this month because of good behavior.
Bennett says his imprisonment should therefore end on March 30 and if a third of his sentence was knocked off for good behaviour in terms of the Prisons Act, he should have been out of jail on February 7.
In his affidavit, Bennett argued that although Parliament had committed him to an effective 12 months in jail, the sentence automatically expires at the expiry of the life of the Fifth Parliament according to the Parliamentary Immunities and Privileges Act.
The High Court turned down his request for early release.
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