80 JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE ____________________________________________________________________ According to the majority of the Supreme Court, only two categories of persons would have had legal standing to bring this action. Firstly, those who were alleging that they had been denied the right to register as voters when voter registration was extended. Secondly, those who had applied for and been denied postal votes. As regards the second category, this was curiously expressed by the Chief Justice as follows: To establish that this provision had violated the applicant’s right to freedom of expression, he would have had to make an allegation such as that he had applied to the Registrar-General for a postal vote and was denied such a vote because of [the new provisions]. Obviously the applicant himself would not have been eligible for a postal vote even under the unamended provisions. Conclusions These cases show how inimical to the interests of justice a narrow view of the sufficiency requirement can be, when courts wish to avoid politically sensitive issues. The Stevenson judgment was corrected by the Supreme Court, though too late to avoid the ill-effects it caused — the delayed municipal elections were held in conjunction with the presidential elections, resulting in the effective disenfranchisement of many voters who were unable to cast their votes. The Tsvangirai judgment, on the other hand, remains uncorrected, and its harmful influence may continue in our law for many years to come. Topic 3 3. THE HARARE CITY COUNCIL CASES Introduction As indicated in Section A of this report, Ms Stevenson was resident in the Harare municipal area and a ratepayer. She was also a Member of Parliament for a Harare constituency. In 2000 she applied in the High Court for an order obliging the holding