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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
President
uses executive powers to amend electoral law
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
June 13,
2013
On 13 June 2013
Statutory Instrument 85 of 2013 was gazetted in terms of an Extraordinary
Government Gazette of the same date. The President of Zimbabwe has
used his presidential powers in terms of the Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures) Act [Chapter 10:20] to gazette regulations
that essentially extensively amend the Electoral
Act [Chapter 2:13].
The President
has justified
his bypassing of Parliament on the basis that the deadline imposed
by the Constitutional Court in the case of Mawarire
v Robert Mugabe and Others (Judgment No. CCZ1/13) has made it
“inexpedient to await the passage through Parliament of an
[Electoral] Act dealing with the situation”.
In terms of Section 4(1)
of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act, the President
must now place these regulations before Parliament no later than
the eighth day on which Parliament sits next after the publication
of said regulations. It is at this stage that Parliament is, by
law, required to consider the amendment or repeal of the regulations.
Lawyers have it on good
authority that Statutory Instrument 86 of 2013 will proclaim an
election of 31 July 2013 and nomination day as 28 June 2013. Once
the proclamation has been made, no further amendments can be made
to the Electoral Law.
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