Bloomberg Business WeekÂ
By Brian Latham
6 June 2013
Zimbabwe can’t hold general elections by a July 31 deadline set by the Supreme Court without violating the constitution, according to Senator David Coltart.
There isn’t enough time for the registration of voters that ends July 9 and the nomination of candidates 30 days before a vote as the constitution stiplulates, Coltart, a lawyer and secretary for legal affairs in a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change party, said today on his website.
“The election cannot under any circumstances be held lawfully and in compliance with the constitution before the 9th August 2013,†he said.
Coltart made his statement as the 15-nation Southern African Development Community prepares to discuss Zimbabwe’s elections at a June 9 meeting in the Mozambican capital, Maputo. President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly called for an early vote, while both factions of the MDC have said the May 31 Supreme Court ruling was unconstitutional and unfeasible.
The electoral commission yesterday described the voters’ roll as a “shambles,†Newsday, based in the capital, Harare, reported. The body said an election date must be at least 44 days after voter registration is completed.
Mugabe, 89, has ruled the southern African nation since its independence from the U.K. more than three decades ago.
He shares power with the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC and a smaller faction of the party led by Welshman Ncube, a law professor. The five-year power-sharing agreement was brokered by SADC after it declared elections in 2008 void because of violence mainly against MDC supporters.