RG’s office stops RAU voters’ roll audit launch
The latest installment of the not-so-funny comedy of errors plaguing Zimbabwe’s 31 July harmonised election. How’s this for outrageous? Read the press statement from RAU about the launch of their voters’ roll audit report being banned.
The Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) intended to launch a detailed analysis of the Voters’ Roll this morning. This detailed audit comes in the wake of a preliminary report that RAU released on the 5th of July 2013.
RAU has had to cancel the launch of this report however because the Registrar General at 8.17a.m left an interdict at our offices from the High Court to stop the event from going ahead at the Crowne Plaza the chosen venue, who were cited as the second Respondents and were served at 8.30am.
The Registrar General’s interdict is based on a misconception that we wanted to launch the voters roll, relying on an erroneous article by NEWSDAY published on the 16th of July 2013 which stated that RAU intended to launch a full voters’ roll. Instead of proceeding by way of an application interdicting us from launching our report, it would have taken a simple phone call from the Registrar General’s office to confirm that what we intended to launch was a report based on the Roll and not the Roll itself.
RAU wishes to clarify that it never intended to a launch a voters’ roll. RAU was going to launch an analysis done on the voters roll. In addition to the above, the Chairperson of ZEC and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission are aware that RAU has been working on such an audit and ZEC had received and acknowledged receipt of the preliminary report.
RAU is deeply concerned with the fact that the order for an interdict was granted and the application was admitted and decided yet the Certificate of Urgency, which makes part of the Application was not signed as is required by law.
RAU also finds unprocedural and an abuse of the justice system and court process the fact that we were not served with the application when it was filed with the High Court and that we only received it at the same time as the Order for an Interdict was delivered to RAU.