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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
New
electoral regulations gazetted - Bill Watch 23/2013
Veritas
June 14, 2013
Three Statutory
Instruments were gazetted in Government Gazette Extraordinary No.
46 dated 13th June:
- SI 87 –
Electoral (Amendment) Regulations, 2013 (No. 8)
- SI 88 –
Electoral (Nomination of Candidates) Regulations, 2013
- SI 89 –
Electoral (Accreditation of Observers) Regulations, 2013.
This
raises several questions
- The timing
of the gazetting is unclear as they were unavailable just before
the Government Printer’s offices closed yesterday –
if they were published at the last minute or after normal hours,
they certainly couldn’t have reached many members of the
public yesterday.
- The second
question that may be asked is whether or not they can be applied
to the forthcoming elections? Obviously, both from the timing
and the SI numbering, they were gazetted after the Presidential
Proclamation
of the Election Dates [SI 86], and the new Constitution
clearly states in section 157 (5): “After an Election has
been called, no change to the Electoral
Law or any other law relating to election has effect for the
purpose of that election.” [Note that in section 332 of
the new Constitution a “law” is defined as including
“any provision of a statutory instrument” - just as
it is in the previous constitution and in the Interpretation Act.]
- The third
question is how valid are they if they are regulations to give
effect to the amendments to the Electoral Act in SI 85, made under
the Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures) Act. These amendments themselves
may not be valid, as the new Constitution specifically says that
the Electoral Law can only be amended by an Act of Parliament
and not in terms of any other Act – section 157(1) states:
“An Act of Parliament must provide for the conduct of elections
and referendums to which this Constitution applies.”
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