This week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa will make proclamation of election dates which is in accordance to Section 158 (1)(a) the next general elections should be held on any date between July 21 and August 21 unless Parliament is dissolved in terms of Section 158 (1) (b) or 158 (1) (c) of the Constitution.
After the proclamation of an election date, the nomination courts will be expected to sit on a date at least 14 days and not more than 21 days after the proclamation date.
The elections must be held on a day which is at least 30 days and not more than 63 days after the nomination court.
When the President has decided the polling day and proclamation day, the day for nomination can be fixed. Nomination day is the day on which candidates have to take their papers to a nomination court.
There must be a minimum period of 14 days, and a maximum of 21 days, from proclamation to nomination day [Constitution section 157(3) and Electoral Act section 38].
Mugabe and Tsvangirai Missing
Zimbabwe will go to elections for the first time since the coming to the fore of main opposition party MDC-T without Robert Mugabe, who was deposed in November 2017 during a military takeover, and Morgan Tsvangirai, who died on February 14 after battling colon cancer for about two years.
The front-runners in the 2018 election will be Zanu PF’s Mnangagwa, who took over power from former President Robert Mugabe, a man he had walked side by side for more than 50 years, and then MDC-T’s youthful Nelson Chamisa, the first youth leader at the formation of the opposition party since 1999.
Chamisa, who will go into the election as MDC Alliance leader, assumed control of the MDC-T after his Tsvangirai’s death.
Healing and Violence
President Mnangagwa is set to address a Zanu-PF two-day healing and reconciliation workshop for the party’s winning and losing candidates in the just ended primary elections. The workshop, which starts tomorrow, is aimed at uniting those who participated in the party’s primary elections.
In a circular to all provincial chairpersons, the Zanu-PF Department for the Commissariat said the workshop organised through the Chitepo School of Ideology will be held at the Zanu-PF Headquarters in Harare.
Meanwhile, the country’s main opposition party, the MDC-T could be in turmoil following reports of violence in its just ended primaries.
The MDC-T, for the second time in a week, failed to hold primary elections for its candidates in St Mary’s constituency, Chitungwiza, as a result of intra-party violence.
The elections were violently disrupted again yesterday after similar clashes on Friday, with one of the aspiring candidates, Hillary Gwata, accusing his rival and sitting legislator, Unganai Tarusenga of pushing him out of the race.
