Eight students at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) have dragged the school authorities to court after they were blocked from contesting in the upcoming elections to select student leaders.
The eight are Tawanda Watadza, Tanaka Masvaya, Hazel Gwande, Munashe Muchero, Darlington Chigweja, Delama Chiranaza, Lionela Madamombe and Comfort Mpofu.
UZ is set to conduct Student Executive Council and Student Representative Assembly Elections this Tuesday.
According to court papers, on the 14th to November 2023 the Electoral Commission chairperson issued a notice announcing the polls for the Student Executive Council and Student Representative Assembly.
He went on to invite nominations for possible candidates.
The Dean of Students on the 17th of November 2023 issued rules and regulations for the conduct of the said elections.
Applicants were nominated and their nomination forms were duly submitted as directed in the notices.
On the 22nd of November 2023 the Electoral Commission of the students union sat and deliberated on the nomination and announced that the eight were not validly nominated and therefore could not qualify to stand for the 28th November 2023 elections.
The aggrieved students then orally requested for the reasons why their nominations were invalidated but none were provided.
They insist on being compliant with the requirements set in the Constitution as well as further rules and guidelines.
On the 23rd of November 2023 the applicants wrote to the Electoral Commission requesting for the reasons but still no reasons were availed.
"Applicants are aggrieved by the decision by the student's union Electoral Commission to invalidate their nominations in that the invalidation is unlawful, unjust and unsupported by the union's constitution nor the further rules and regulations set by the Dean of Students.
"The decision to disqualify the Applicants is thus malicious and capricious for want of compliance with the dictates of the union's constitution and guidelines," wrote their lawyer Obey Shava in the urgent court application.
Shava said the students have no other forum to approach for redress and no other relief is available to them apart from approaching the High Court.
The students are seeking an order declaring that nullification of their nomination was unlawful, null and void.
In his founding affidavit to support the application, one of the students, Watadza said, "Absence of reasons for the invalidation of our nominations points to the fact that the decision arrived at was capricious, malicious and merely vindictive. It was baseless and unlawful.
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"It is my averment that by virtue of being ordinary members of the union, the applicants have the right to stand as candidates in the election of SEC and SRA representatives.
"This is the same right that has been infringed and now subject to this present application. I further aver that this is a genuine application not necessarily for academic purposes.
He said invalidating a nomination for reasons not stated nor recognised by law amounts to denying the electorate the right to vote for their preferred candidate.
Watadza said it also denies the nominated candidate their lifetime chance to be voted into the supreme students' body at the most prestigious institution of higher learning in the land.
The matter was argued before High Court judge Justice Fatima Maxwell who said the application was premature and struck it off the roll.
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