timeframe is, accordingly, invalid with the correlative effect of rendering the
entire application fatally and incurably defective.
v.
In terms of r9(7) of the Constitutional Court Rules, all process initiating litigation,
(such as an application initiating a challenge to the election of a president), shall
be served by the Sheriff.
vi.
On the 10th of August 2018 the applicant herein purported to file, with the
Registrar of the Constitutional Court, an application in terms of s93(1) of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe as read with r23 of the Constitutional Court Rules. In
that application, the applicant cited me, in my capacity as the Chairperson of the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, as the 24th respondent; the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission as the 23rd respondent and the Chief Elections Officer of the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission as the 25th respondent.
vii.
Thereafter the applicant, through his legal practitioners, without the aid of the
Sheriff and thus in violation of the rules of this Honourable Court, purported to
serve a copy of that application upon the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in the
evening of the 10th of August 2018. A single copy was received at the Electoral
Commission’s offices at Mahachi Quantum Building. No copy of the application
was served on me or on the 25th respondent on the 10th of August 2018 or
subsequently. Suffice to state that the purported service on the 10th of August
2018 was defective.
viii.
As both filing, and service are constitutive of an application made in terms of
s93(1) of the Constitution as read with r23 of the Constitutional Court Rules, the