facilitators and the MDC to brief them on the broad outlines of the talks, and to receive input from the civics. The tensions over this perceived lack of consultation came to the boil in September 2007 when the MDC agreed to the Zimbabwe government’s Amendment No 18. This latter was developed in the aftermath of Mugabe’s failed attempt, at the December 2007 ZANU PF conference, to have his term of office extended to 2010 without going to the electorate. The central aspects of the Amendment included the harmonising of the parliamentary and presidential elections, the reduction of the presidential term to five years, and most importantly the new section 28(3)(b) of the constitution which provided that if the president dies, resigns or is removed from office, the Senate and the House of Assembly must sit together within 90 days to elect a new president. A president thus elected would then hold office for the life of the current parliament. The Amendment also increased the number of parliamentary seats to 210, while the Senate was enlarged from 66 to 93 seats of which 60 would be elected on a constituency basis, 10 would be provincial governors, 18 chiefs, while 5 would be appointed by the President. As Feltoe has observed Amendment No 18 was “more concerned with the succession issues surrounding Mugabe than the electoral terrain.” 7 While the MDC viewed their support for Amendment 18 as part of confidence building measures for the SA led mediation, the major civic bodies took a different perspective. The NCA criticized the MDC’s decision to abandon the principle of a people-driven constitution as an “act of treachery.” 8 The ZCTU in turn stated that: “We opposed Amendment Number 17 last year (2006), which established the senate. Now number 18 has increased the seats of the Senate to 93. Why should we support it now?” 9 Other civic leaders who met Morgan Tsvangirai in October 2007 also protested that: We told Tsvangirai that we were not happy with the idea of piecemeal Constitutional amendments. We also told him we were not happy with the issue being peddled that the opposition had agreed on a new constitution with ZANU PF in a process that does not involve the people. 10 This tension between civil society groups and the MDC over the mediation ran alongside the continued failure of the two MDC formations to sign on to some form of electoral agreement before the 2008 elections. While on 18th January 2008 the negotiating teams of the two MDC formations had provisionally agreed to contest the upcoming elections as a united front, behind a single presidential candidate (Tsvangirai), also fielding single candidates for parliamentary and local government elections, this provisional agreement was rejected by the National Council of the Tsvangirai formation in February 2008. The latter sort to establish its dominance in both its existing areas of support and in those areas claimed as strongholds by the MDC Mutambara. By the end of 2007 the SADC facilitation had gone some way in getting agreement between ZANU PF and the two MDC’s in a number of areas including the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13), the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act (Chapter 2:12), amendments to the Public Order and Security Act, the Access to Information and Privacy Act, the Broadcasting Services Act and a draft constitution that would form the basis of public discussion. Feltoe has observed that although legislative reform “did occur in key areas” these reforms fell short of what was required “to bring Zimbabwe’s electoral laws and terrain into line with SADC Guidelines, and short of what was demanded by the MDC.” 11 However perhaps the most significant reform agreed to under the mediation was the amendment of Section 64(1)(e) of the Electoral Act. Under this amendment once the votes have been counted at a polling station, the presiding officer is legally required to record these votes on a return and, and to post them up outside the polling station before sending them to the constituency elections officer. Moreover the presiding officer is 7 Geoff Feltoe, “Negotiations and Compliance with the SADC Guidelines for Zimbabwe’s Forthcoming Poll.” Unpub paper 2008. 8 “Civic Group meeting called by Tsvangirai.” The Zimbabwe Times, 26/09/07. 9 Njabulo Ncube “Tsvangirai works overtime to appease allies.” Financial Gazette, 28/09/07. 10 Batsirai Muaranje “MDC leader meets civic society.” ZimOnline, 26/10/07 11 Feltoe 2008 op cit. 10