Pre-referendum and by election litigation The period in the run up to the Constitutional referendum was heavily contested. On 13 March, Zimbabwe’s influential human rights, labour and social justice activists responded to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and President Robert Mugabe by inundating the Supreme Court with a lawsuits. This period witnessed a litany of litigations, for example, the NCA challenged the appointment of ZEC acting chairperson Joyce Kazembe, arguing that ZEC was improperly constituted and could not competently run any election or referendum until a substantive chairperson or a suitably qualified acting chairperson was newly appointed. In a related case, on 13 March, the Supreme Court set aside High Court Judge President George Chiweshe’s ruling in which he stated that the powers conferred upon President Mugabe are not justiciable and ruled that Justice Chiweshe should have assumed jurisdiction to enquire into the issue of the irrationality and gross unreasonableness of President Mugabe’s proclamation of 16 March as the referendum date. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the NCA’s appeal to delay the weekend referendum on the merits. On 13 March, Majongwe, Gwisai, Yuba and ISO, who identified themselves as proponents of the “VOTE NO” campaign filed a constitutional application arguing that they had been denied their right to a free and fair referendum due to the limited amount of time available to them to conduct their campaigns and hence requested an extension of time before the draft governance charter would be put to the vote. In a separate by election case, 15 April 2013 the Supreme Court granted an application filed by three former legislators Abednico Bhebhe, Njabuliso Mguni and Norman Mpofu to hear their appeal against the dismissal of their petition in the High on an urgent basis. The Supreme Court had in 2012 ordered President Mugabe to gazette dates for by-elections in the trio’s former constituencies. In October, Justice Chiweshe then granted a reprieve to President Mugabe to comply with the court’s order until 31March 2013. But President Mugabe then filed papers authorising him not to comply with the order, on the basis that it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money given that the Parliament was to end on 29 June, a claim lawyers deny arguing that the life of Parliament will end on 29 October. Justice Chiweshe granted the application without giving his reasons after fierce resistance by the three former MPs’ lawyers. The Judge President said he would hand down the reasons for his ruling on Monday 8 April 2013. Constitutional Referendum outcome On 13 March 2013, Zimbabweans voted in a referendum for a new constitution with a resounding YES vote. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) highlighted that while voting had been fairly quiet and peaceful there were recurring incidents of political parties recording details of voters concerned over the presence of police officers at the polling stations with some police officers assisting voters contrary to the law. There was a violation of secrecy in voting with instances of those who offering were assistance shouting out the voter’s choice and some ZESN observers being barred from covering the constituency collating centres On 27 March 2013 the Referendum results were gazetted in the General Notice 201A/2013 signed by the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. On 22 May 2013 Mugabe signed the new constitution into law 3b. Elections The new constitution provided for universal adult suffrage as a fundamental right at the same level as other fundamental rights that can be enforced easily by direct access to the highest court. In March 2013, the ACHPR passed a provisional measure allowing exiled Zimbabweans and those living 45