division of the High Court and judges of the Electoral Court are appointed and drawn from the judges of the High Court. In keeping with the Constitution, the Electoral Amendment Act also calls for gender parity in the assessors for the Electoral Court. It is notable that ahead of the 2018 elections, the securities of costs required by petitioners who file cases at the Electoral Court division of the High Court were reduced. These costs are paid to the court as security in the event that a litigant is not successful. The costs were reduced from ten thousand United States dollars ($10,000) per Election Petition to two thousand ($2000.00) for National Assembly challenges, five hundred ($500.00) for local authority. In the past, the high security costs had naturally limited the number of petitions that could be pursued, and seemed to be a deterrent to would-be petitioners to challenge the results. At least 20 petitions were filed after the 2018 elections, challenging election of members of the National Assembly in some constituencies such as Murewa South, Chikomba Central, Mutare Central, amongst other constituencies. Most of the cases are still ongoing and have to be heard within six months of filing as required by the Electoral Act. 4.7 Presidential Petition The law provides for an aggrieved party in a presidential election to challenge the results before the courts. Section 93 of the Constitution gives jurisdiction to the Constitutional Court to deal with such a challenge. The petition or application must be filed with the Constitutional Court within seven days after the date of the declaration of the results of the election. Section 93(3) of the Constitution directs the Constitutional Court to hear and determine a petition or application within 14 days after it has been lodged. This was the case in the 2018 election where, in the Chamisa v Mnangagwa and Others CC 42/18 Case, the aggrieved candidate lodged a case with the Constitutional court seeking to overturn the declaration made by ZEC. The case also raised issues of lodging a petition within the prescribed timelines. However, the petition was dismissed with costs by the Constitutional Court after full arguments were made. The reasons for the dismissal are yet to be made available, although the judges pointed out some issues that had not be adequately addressed by the petitioner including the failure to provide evidence to show that they had indeed won the popular vote as they alleged. 4.8 Legislative Developments As noted earlier, the elections were preceded by some legislative amendments. Notable changes to the Electoral Act that had been passed by May 2018 include the removal of the requirement for an electoral officer to witness how a visually impaired person votes, the 23 | P a g e