section 20(1) of the Constitution, in that it violated the protection of freedom of expression. The government was forced to amend the Act and reduce the threshold to 5% of votes cast in the last general election31. Even then, no opposition party at the time qualified for funding under the new threshold and ZANU (PF) remained the sole recipient of public funding up to 2000. The Political Parties (Finance) Act of 1992 was repealed and replaced by the Political Parties (Finance) Act [Chapter 2:11] in 2001. The purpose of the new Act, whose main difference with the old one was the prohibition of foreign funding, was to provide for public financing of political parties and to prohibit foreign donations to political parties and candidates. With regard to State financing of political parties, section 3(1) of the Act provides that ‘every political party’ shall be entitled in each Parliamentary year to receive funding from the State32. However, not every political party actually receives public funding because section 3(3) of the Act prescribes a threshold for qualification for public funding. For a political party to qualify for public funding, its candidates must have received at least 5% of the total number of votes cast in the most recent general election33. It shall be paid the same proportion of the total moneys appropriated as the total number of votes cast for its candidates in the election in relation to the aggregate of votes cast for all political parties that qualify for public funding. The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is required to publish a notice in the government gazette, with the approval of the Minister of Finance, no later than thirty days after the beginning of the financial year, specifying the total amount of moneys appropriated for all political parties and the amount that shall be paid to each individual political party34. The Minister of Justice shall as soon as practicable after the publication of the notice pay each political party the moneys it is entitled to receive in terms of the Act35. If a by-election to fill a vacancy in Parliament is held after a general election, the Minister shall adjust the amounts payable to political parties in respect of the 31 Please refer to United Parties v Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Others, supra. See also Zimbabwe: Party Regulation and Funding, http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/zimpartiesc.htm, (24/09/09). 32 ‘Parliamentary year’ is defined in section 2 of the Act as the period beginning on the day after the last polling day of the most recent general election and ending on the anniversary of that polling day or, in a year in which Parliament is dissolved, ending on the date of such dissolution. Section 5 of the Act provides that all moneys that are to be paid to political parties in terms of the Act shall be paid out of moneys appropriated for the purpose by Parliament in respect of each Parliamentary year. 33 If a candidate is unopposed and thereby declared elected without a poll having taken place, he/she shall be deemed to have received the votes of all voters registered in the constituency concerned. Note further that at the time the law was enacted, Zimbabwe had a unicameral Parliament and the Senate had not yet been revived. 34 Section 3(2) of the Act. 35 Section 3(6) of the Act. 13