candidates receive equal votes, it will be left to Parliament to meet as an Electoral College to elect by secret ballot one of them as President. This is because this provision is based on the assumption that Parliament will have been convened by the time of the Presidential run-off election. As the experience of the 2008 elections reminds us, this may not necessarily be the case, particularly when there is harmonisation of general and Presidential elections. Parliament was not convened until after the Presidential run-off election had been held which means in the unlikely event of a deadlock at the run-off election, it would have been impracticable for Parliament to exercise its power to sit as an Electoral College to elect the President. This would have produced a constitutional crisis. It would be better if the legislation gave a specific time-line of when the Parliament should be convened after the election, even in the event of a run-off Presidential election. If Parliament is convened, it will fill in the power vacuum that would otherwise occur where everything would have to wait until the end of the Presidential run-off election. (Note the above comment regarding the use of Parliament to elect the President in the event of a deadlock) Announcement of Results • Section 110(3) (h) is a particularly important addition in that it sets a specified period within which presidential election results must be announced. It requires that the Chief Elections Officer must declare the results within five (5) days of the last polling day in the presidential election or the presidential run-off election. Where a recount has been ordered, results must be declared within five (5) days of the completion of the recount. It must be noted that where a recount is ordered it must, in terms of Section 67A, be completed within five (5) days after the last polling day of the election (although the Electoral Court has the power to extend this period upon application by the Commission). • On analysis, setting a period for the declaration of results is an important step given what transpired in the 2008 Presidential election when it took more than m before the initial results were officially announced. This caused anxiety, uncertainty and gave rise to concerns of election 11