Julie Deisher at 9:30 AM ET
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Zimbabwe president bypasses parliament to change election laws
Zimbabwe president bypasses parliament to change election laws
Julie Deisher at 9:30 AM ET
[JURIST] Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]
on Thursday used a presidential decree to bypass parliament in order to
make changes to electoral laws in compliance with the Constitutional
Court's order to hold elections by July 31. The amended electoral laws
[Reuters report] ensure that all political parties have access to the
state broadcaster and that the results of elections will be posted
outside polling centers, and the long-awaited poll date was officially
set for July 31. However, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] promptly declared [Guardian
report] Mugabe's action to be a "unilateral and flagrant breach of our
constitution and the GPA [global political agreement]," which states
that the president could only act in consultation with the prime
minister in announcing election dates. Tsvangirai also alleges that
Mugabe infringed on the voter-registration process, disenfranchising
first-time voters and denying political parties and Zimbabweans the
chance to inspect the much-criticized voters roll.
In May, Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court imposed
[JURIST report] a July 31 election deadline and ordered Mugabe to
announce a date soon. The order came just one week after Mugabe signed [JURIST report] the country's new constitution
[text] into law. Mugabe, 89, has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence
from the UK in 1980. After the country's disputed elections in 2008,
Mugabe and his political rival Tsvangirai formed a coalition government
and found a compromise to hold elections on the condition that a new
constitution was enacted beforehand. Zimbabwe has been criticized for
the state of its legislative and electoral environment. In a report [text, PDF] issued by Human Rights Watch
[advocacy website], the organization said that the country must take
adequate steps to ensure "credible, free and fair elections" in 2013.
Julie Deisher at 9:30 AM ET
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