By Takunda Mandura
The Speaker of Zimbabwe's parliament has declared 15 seats held by the main opposition party, Citizen Coalition for Change, vacant amid controversy over a letter that recalled the lawmakers.
This is despite CCC party leader Nelson Chamisa advising the Speaker to disregard the letter as it was written by a non-member with no powers to recall lawmakers.
Zimbabwe's law allows the Speaker to declare a seat of an MP vacant if the lawmaker ceases to be a member of their party and the party writes a letter to either the Senate or Lower House notifying them of the matter.
The CCC MPs were recalled by lawyer Sengezo Tshabangu who had declared himself the party's secretary general. He wrote to the Speaker MPs early this month to announce that the 15 MPs had ceased being members of the party.
Trigger by-elections
Speaker Jacob Mudenda has subsequently written to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce the seats vacant, which should normally trigger by-elections.
The MPs were elected in August's general elections that saw the ruling Zanu PF party retain its majority in parliament. President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second and final term in office.
Leadership structure of the opposition party is centralised around Chamisa who is surrounded by spokespersons he has appointed. The party was formed in March 2022 and has not set a date for party elections.
In 2020 and 2021, the then main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) used to the same law to recall mayors, councilors and MPs linked to Chamisa leading to by-elections.
The infighting in MDC-T led to Chamisa into forming his new party which he used to win back 19 of the 28 contested parliamentary seats and 75 seats in 122 municipalities which were up for elections.
