ii. Parliamentary and Local Council Election Petitions Election results can be contested through a petition lodged at the Electoral Court, within fourteen days following the declaration of results, and only by candidates themselves. Notably, the Electoral Act Applications, Appeals and Petitions Rules 1995 (herewith: the Election Petition Rules) are not aligned with the Electoral Act as they were produced before it was enacted, but they are not formally repealed either. However, the Electoral Act contains two contradictory provisions,103 the first suggesting that these rules are redundant as were repealed together with the previous Electoral Act, and the second intending to perpetuate their existence despite the Electoral Act under which they were taken having been repealed. 104 Recommendation 22: Introduce provisions allowing citizens and civil society organisations to file petitions against the results under reasonable conditions. Furthermore, the Election Petition Rules are overly formalistic and onerous, with some provisions de facto restricting the right of access to justice. 105 In a positive development, the amount of security for costs to be lodged by the petitioners was reduced.106 According to a Practice Direction of the Chief Justice published on 6 August, petitioners should pay 5,000 USD as security for costs for challenging the presidential election results, 2,000 USD for petitions against National Assembly results and 1,000 USD for local authority petitions. During the 2013 elections, the security for costs amounted to 10,000 USD for all types of petitions, which led to an actual restriction of the right of access to justice.107 Recommendation 23: Revise the Electoral Act Applications, Appeals and Petition Rules of 1995 and align them with the Electoral Act The time limit of 14 days for the submission of petitions to the Electoral Court 108 against National Assembly and local council election results started to run from the day the results for each election and each constituency/ward were declared. The Court has six months for their determination, while an appeal, only on a question of law, may be filed to the Supreme Court within 15 days and determined within three months. Filing of a petition does not have a suspensive effect; a duly 103 Sections 165(4) and 193(3)(d). In a petition challenging some of the 2013 election results, the Harare Electoral Court came to the conclusion (ECH 11-2013 of 27 March 2014) that the 1995 Rules are valid and failure to comply with them renders a petition invalid. 105 Such as Section 21(f) that requires the petitioner, when a corrupt of illegal practice is alleged, to state in the petition the full names and addresses of every person who allegedly was guilty of such a practice. 106 The Electoral Regulations 2005 as updated to 1 st June 2018 and the Electoral (Amendment) Regulations 2013 stipulate that the security costs should be not less than 500 US$. The exact amount is fixed by the Registrar after consultation between the ZEC and the Chief Justice. 107 In particular, 62 out of the 101 petitions filed challenging the 2013 NA and local council election results were withdrawn due to an inability to pay the security for costs. 108 On 15 June the appointment of 35 judges of the High Court to the Electoral Court, in accordance with S.162 (1) of the EA, was gazetted; the proclamation specified that the appointment would have retrospective effect from that month and would be valid for the next six months. 104 45