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17 U. Botswana L.J. 55 (2013)
Electoral Democracy in Africa: A Critique of Jealousy Mbizvo Mawarire v Robert Gabriel Mugabe N.O. and 4 Others CCZ 1/13

handle is hein.journals/unbotslj17 and id is 55 raw text is: NOTES Electoral democracy in Africa: A critique of jealousy Mbizvo Mawarire v Robert Gabriel Mugabe N. 0. and 4 Others CCZ 1/13 Gift Manyatera* and Chengetai Hamadziripi** ABSTRACT In the jealousy Mbizvo Mawarire case the Zimbabwe Constitutional court tackled the question of the validity of the elections held in Zimbabwe on 31 July 2013. The applicant alleged an infringement of his constitutional rights caused by the failure of the first respondent to call elections within the life of Parliament. The First respondent took the view that elections had to be called within 4 months before the expiration of the life of arliament. The 2nd and 4th Respondents took the view that elections could lawfully be called up to four months after the dissolution of Parliament. In a political climate where some took the view that judgments were granted in order to legitimize and further propagate the views of the executive, the decision of the constitutional court in this matter was eagerly anticipated. In this case note, the authors outline the parties' arguments and critique the decision of the judges of the constitutional court coming to the conclusion that the dissenting judges grasped the proper interpretation of the constitution and that the judiciaries in Africa should recognize their duty to promote afair and even political playing field. 1. INTRODUCTION The Zimbabwean elections which were held on the 31st of July 2013 were a direct consequence of the ruling that was handed down by the Constitutional Court in the case of Jealousy Mawarire v Robert Gabriel Mugabe N. 0. and 4 Others.1 These watershed elections were of great importance in that they marked the end of the Government of National Unity which was constituted under the Global Political Agreement.2 Moreover, the 2013 elections marked the beginning of a new constitutional dispensation in Zimbabwe as the * LLBS (UZ), LLM (Un. of Turin) MSc CLEF(IUC Turin), LLD Candidate (UP), Executive Dean, Faculty of Law, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. ** LLB(Hons)(MSU), Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. 1 CCZ 1/13. 2 This was a political agreement between the major political parties in Zimbabwe; the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and the two major factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to come together to form a transitional government of unity to tackle the challenges which Zimbabwe faced in 2008.

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