10 | Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal independent constitutional body, ZEC is not bound by the Declaration of Rights. The fact that ZEC is an independent constitutional commission does not exonerate it from being bound by the Declaration of Rights or the Constitution. A Constitution prescribes how the State shall be organised or structured, creates State institutions, confers power to those institutions and prescribes rules, principles and values through which the assigned power shall be exercised by those institutions.38 ZEC is guaranteed independence from being pressured by other State institutions or non-State actors but is still subject to law and Constitutional provisions. Only the judiciary, when applying the law, has the authority to direct how ZEC shall operate.39 Therefore, there should not be doubt that ZEC is an institution of the State, which is required to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights enshrined in the Constitution. Furthermore, ZEC is bound by the Declaration of Rights given that it is a Commission created to ensure the effective realisation of the rights enshrined in the Declaration of Rights. ZEC’s mandate is to organise, supervise and conduct elections in a manner that is consistent with the principles set by the Constitution, in order to fulfil the right to a free and fair election40 as enshrined in s 67 (1) (a). As will be shown later, the right to a free and fair election is not a right which can be exercised in isolation as it is closely related and sometimes dependent on other rights such as the right to access certain information which enables citizens to cast their votes freely and have those votes counted fairly. ZEC is thus not only bound by the right to vote but by the entire Declaration of Rights, to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the relevant rights enshrined therein, which include the right of access to information held by the State. The notion that ZEC is bound by the rights enshrined in the Declaration of Rights is further supported by s 233 (a) and (c), which binds ZEC to support human rights and promote I derive this definition from Gorge Devenish’s discussion of constitutionalism in A Commentary on the South African Bill of Rights (1999) at 16-17 39 See s 165, read together with s 69 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013 40 As well as other rights enshrined in the Declaration of Rights. 38