Executive Summary
The General Laws Amendment Act (GLAA) was gazetted and became part of the laws of the land on 1 July 2016. The GLAA took an omnibus
approach to amend and attempt to align 126 Acts with the Constitution. Prior to GLAA’s enactment and passage in parliament, the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) had made submissions specific to the portions relating to the amendment of the Electoral Act. It is those
amendments through GLAA that now form part of Zimbabwean law that are subject of this analysis. The analysis focusses on the extent to
which the latest amendments address the concerns around the electoral law, and in particular the extent to which these amendments give
effect to the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
In Summary ZESN makes the following observations and conclusion:
The current Electoral Laws still require comprehensive amendments. ZESN has previously pointed out that there is need for a
comprehensive process of amending all the Electoral Laws and bring them into conformity with the Constitution as well as regional
guidelines on good governance and elections. The piecemeal approach adopted in the GLAA is consistent with the objectionable
approaches that have been adopted in the past of amending parts of the sum total to the Electoral laws. To date, the Electoral Act has
been amended more than eleven times. Sadly this has been done with no due consideration to submissions by stakeholders and
resultantly, there are still several provisions that have not been addressed that require attention if the Act is to be in line with the
Constitution and regional and international standards. The suggested amendments are covered in previous ZESN policy positions that
have been shared with government stakeholders.
It was always going to be difficult for government to comprehensively address the substantive amendments to the Electoral Act via a
general amendment bill which focussed on at least 126 other laws. It was important that the Electoral Act be given specific attention so
that the culture of piecemeal legislative amendments is avoided and the electoral laws are made clear, simple and certain for all
stakeholders before another election. That opportunity, so far, has not been taken. When the previous amendment (Act 6 of 2014) was
brought before parliament for debate, the sponsoring Minister acknowledged that the Bill was inadequate and he promised to revisit
the Electoral Act with a view to make more comprehensive reviews to the Act. Unfortunately that opportunity has been missed as