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Bills
passed & sitting days in 2012: Parliamentary vacancies &
voting strengths – Bill Watch 54/2012
Veritas
December 17, 2012
Both
Houses of Parliament have Adjourned until Tuesday 5th February
Bills Passed
during 2012
Bills passed
this year during the last [Fourth] Session
These have all
been gazetted as Acts of 2012
Note: the Fourth
Session started on 6th September 2011, and between that date and
the end of the year four Bills were passed and later gazetted as
Acts of 2011 – all of them Budget-related. Of the 14 non-Budget
pieces of legislation the President listed for Parliament
to deal with at the opening of the Fourth Session, the Government
brought only two Bills to Parliament – the Older Persons Bill
and the Electoral Amendment Bill. [For the 12 Bills outlined in
the President’s speech that did not reach Parliament during
the Session, see Bill
Watch 36/2011 of 9th September 2011.]
Passed during
current [Fifth] Session
- Finance
(No. 2) Bill
- Appropriation
(2013) Bill
These are awaiting
gazetting as Acts
Note the Fifth
Session opened on 30th October 2012 and will continue until this
Parliament comes to an end.
Notably missing
– any reform of existing legislation restricting freedom of
speech and assembly.
Sitting
Days during 2012
The first meetings
of the House of Assembly and the Senate in 2012 were on Tuesday
28th February. Their last meetings, before both adjourned until
Tuesday 5th February 2013, were on Thursday 29th November. During
that period the House met on 35 days and the Senate on 37.
House
of Assembly
Last [Fourth]
Session ..... 30
Current [Fifth]
Session ... 5
Total..........................
35
Senate
Last session
.................. 32
Current session
............... 5
Total..........................
37
Vacancies
& Voting Strengths at 16th December 2012
House
of Assembly
One new vacancy
This arose with
the death on 30th November of Jabulani Mangena, ZANU-PF MP for Mberengwa
North.
Current
vacancies
There are 18
vacancies, leaving 197 House of Assembly MPs out of a possible 215.
Note: All the
vacancies are for constituency seats and are awaiting by-elections.
Current
membership/voting strengths
The 197 current
members of the House fall into the following groups:
ZANU-PF 92
MDC-T 97
MDC 8
Reminder:
Non-constituency seats
The five non-constituency
[ex officio or appointed] members of the House are: Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and Minister Gorden Moyo from MDC-T; Vice-President
John Landa Nkomo and Ms Oppah Muchinguri from ZANU-PF; and Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
MDC
expulsions
The “MDC
occupied seats” in the above lists include the seats held
by members whose expulsion from the party was recently announced
by the Welshman Ncube-led MDC – three members of the House,
two of the Senate. They have not lost their seats, because the party
has not yet notified the Speaker and the President of the Senate
of the expulsions, which is what is required to trigger the loss
of a party seat under section 41 of the Constitution
[see Bill Watch 52/2012
of 24th November].
[Note: Professor
Mutambara, whose Supreme Court bid to reverse his replacement as
MDC president by Professor Ncube is still pending, has written to
Parliament stating his position that any such notification by the
party without his sanction would be invalid.]
Senate
One vacancy
recently filled by MDC-T nominee
On Thursday
29th November Sibusisiwe Masara was sworn in as an appointed non-constituency
Senator. She is the MDC-T nominee to fill the vacancy caused by
the death in April of the late Dr Tichaona Mudzingwa. The new Senator
is the secretary-general of the MDC-T Women’s Assembly.
Current
vacancies
There are 14
vacancies, leaving 85 Senators out of a possible 99:
Elected Senators
11 vacancies [ZANU-PF 6; MDC-T 5; MDC 0]
Chiefs 2 vacancies
[Matabeleland South 1; Manicaland 1]
Provincial Governors
1 vacancy [Harare]
Appointed Senators
0 vacancies
Note: it is
only the 11 vacancies for elected [i.e., constituency] Senate seats
that need by-elections. The 2 vacant Chiefs seats are awaiting replacements
chosen by the provincial assemblies of chiefs in the relevant provinces.
The vacant Governor’s seat is an ex officio seat, awaiting
the appointment of a new provincial governor for Harare.
Current
membership/voting strenghts
The 85 current
Senators fall into the following groups:
ZANU-PF 38 [24
elected, 5 appointed, plus 9 governors]
MDC-T 23 [19
elected, 4 appointed]
MDC 8 [6 elected,
2 appointed]
Chiefs 16
Update on Number
of By-elections Due
Changes
since last update
Bill Watch 43/2012
of 14th September gave the following figures, which were verified
by Parliament and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, for the number
of by-elections due at that date: Senate 10; House of Assembly 16.
Changes since are as follows:
Senate - One
more by-election is due, following the death of Josiah Rimbi, MDC-T
senator for Chipinge, on 24th September [noted in Bill Watch 44.2012
of 25th September].
House of Assembly
16 - Two more by-elections are due, following the deaths of Stan
Mudenge, ZANU-PF MP for Masvingo North, on 4th October [noted in
Bill Watch 46/2012 of 9th October] and Jabulani Mangena, ZANU-PF
MP for Mberengwa North, on 30th November [noted above].
Current figures
for by-elections due [29]
Senate 11
House of Assembly
18
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