APPENDIX 6 VIOLATIONS OF THE 2013 ELECTION PRIOR TO THE ELECTION: BREACHES OF THE LAW.111 1. The initial proclamation itself was in breach of section 31 H of the Lancaster House Constitution, which was still in force at this time. Cabinet should be consulted before announcing an election date, and yet Mugabe announced it unilaterally. Furthermore, in terms of the GPA, all political parties had to be consulted and a date agreed on prior to proclamation. 2. On 13 June, Section 157 (1) of the Constitution and Section 4(2)(c) of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act were breached, when President Mugabe amended the Electoral Act by proclamation. Both the Constitution and the Act specifically exclude the use of Presidential proclamation to amend Electoral law, which can only be amended by a specific Act of Parliament. 3. The voter registration exercise was not done in compliance with the constitution. Section 6(3) of the 6th Schedule of the Constitution states that the Registrar General under ZEC supervision, must conduct a special and intensive voter registration for at least 30 days after the publication of the date of the election. The voter registration exercise did not last 30 days, and the manner in which it was run was bureaucratically obstructive in Harare and elsewhere (see more on this under bureaucratic breaches). 4. The state controlled media flagrantly promoted ZANU PF and excluded the opposition parties from coverage in newspapers, on television and on the radio, apart from negative coverage. This is a violation of Section 61(4)(b) and (c) of the Constitution, and of Section 160(G) of the Electoral Act. The latter states clearly that public broadcasting media must ensure “a fair and balanced allocation of time between each political party and independent candidate”, and that “each political party and independent candidate is allowed a reasonable opportunity to present a case through the broadcasting service concerned.” 5. Section 152 of the Electoral Act was applied in a partisan manner: this states that it is illegal to damage campaign material during the campaign, yet ZANU PF systematically pulled down posters of the opposition with impunity, while members of the MDC were arrested for pulling down a single ZANU PF poster.112 6. Special vote: The Electoral Act allows civil servants on duty over elections to vote in advance.113                                                              111 Information from David Coltart’s website and in his interview with SWRadioAfrica on 23 August 2013. Also from ‘Court Watch’, and media reports. 112 Coltart notes a person was arrested in his constituency for removing a few ZANU PF posters, yet a white truck with a team was deployed to systematically remove every single MDC and MDC T poster over a stretch of 20 km of road from the airport into town, in full view of at least one police‐manned road block, and the police did nothing, even when informed by Coltart that this was happening. 113 Information on Special vote events, from Court Watch 15/2013, 5 September 2013.   52