The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has said  general elections should be held on any date between July 21 and August 21.

Zec chairperson Priscilla Chigumba said under the constitution, the current president’s term of office expires on August 21, 2018 and according to Section 158 (1)(a) the next general elections should be held on any date between July 21 and August 21 unless Parliament is dissolved in terms of Section 158 (1) (b) or 158 (1) (c) of the Constitution.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa  has said Zimbabwe will hold elections in four to five months, the first vote that does not involve Robert Mugabe since 1980.

“The Commission hereby draws the public’s attention to section 158 (1) (a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which outlines that a general election must take place not more than 30 days before the expiry of the five-year period specified in Section 143 of the Constitution.

“Section 143 of the constitution specifies that parliament is elected for  five-year term which runs from the date on which the president elect is sworn in and assumes office in terms of Section 94 (1)(a),” Chigumba said in a statement yesterday.

“However dates for general elections are set by the president by way of proclamation in term of Section 144 of the Constitution.

“After a proclamation of an election date, the nomination courts must sit on a date which is at least 14 days and not more than 21 days after the proclamation date.

“The elections must be held on a day which is at least 30 days and not more than 63 days after the nomination court.

“Whilst the commission awaits the issuance of a proclamation for the 2018 harmonised elections it is seized with the processes of decrypting date from the BVR exercise and preliminary cleaning of data collected during the blitz phases as it awaits the delivery of the de-duplication software.

“After data de-duplication, a provisional voter’s roll will be produced and opened for public inspection before the final roll is printed,” said Chigumba.- Daily News