ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections elections. The Presidential Powers were invoked through Statutory Instrument 85 of 2013, to amend the electoral law without going to Parliament. This was done despite the fact that the Minister of Finance had been insisting for months that the government had no money to hold elections. President Mugabe claimed to have used his Presidential Powers to amend the Act because it was inexpedient to await the parliamentary process and still be able to abide by the Constitutional Court judgment. Although most of the amendments mirrored what had been discussed in the Cabinet and actually enhanced the electoral process, SI 85 was not well received, as it was a unilateral proclamation that went against the spirit of the GNU. The same sentiments were expressed about the election proclamation, which was made without consulting the other parties in the GNU. Ultimately, the election date was set despite the fact that the agreed reforms had not been fully implemented. In addition, there was little time to implement the reforms that were enunciated in the statutory instrument. The MDCs vehemently opposed the election date and the Prime Minister, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, wrote a strong letter to the President. The MDCs also sent delegations to the Extraordinary Summit of the SADC Heads held in Maputo, Mozambique, on 15 June 2013, two days after the election proclamation. The summit’s communiqué noted that there were still outstanding issues, including media reform and upholding the rule of law.2 SADC further encouraged the parties in the GNU to seek an extension to the poll date to allow implementation of reforms.3 An application to the Constitutional Court to extend the deadline for election by two weeks was duly filed by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa on 18 June. However, on 4 July the Constitutional Court confirmed its earlier ruling that elections should be held by 31 July. The 2013 harmonised elections bore many features of a snap election where stakeholders struggled to meet all the electoral deadlines and in some cases failed, to the detriment of the election process. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE Following the disputed election of 2008, the three main political parties, ZANU PF, the MDC-T and the MDC-N entered into the GNU after the signing of the GPA on 15 September 2008. One of the commitments made by the three political parties was to push for a legislative agenda that promoted a culture of human rights, good governance and democratic elections as provided for by the GPA. The parties agreed to “discuss and agree on further legislative measures which may become necessary to implement the Government’s agreed policies and in particular, with a view to entrenching democratic 2 Communiqué of the SADC Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State, 15 June 2013. Ibid. 3 16 | P a g e