Timeframe for the 2018 General and Presidential Elections
This e-bulletin introduces Veritas’ new Election Watch series. In this series Veritas will provide information about electoral law and its implementation in the run-up to the next general election in 2018.
This first bulletin will outline the timeframe laid down in the Constitution for general elections.
New Constitutional Provisions Different from Previous Provisions
The provisions on the timing of general elections differ from those in the old constitution. They also differ from the provisions for the last [2013] general election which was outlined in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution containing Transitional Provisions. The present constitutional provisions were a deliberate change from the provisions in the old Constitution in which five years was only a maximum term for Parliament and the President could dissolve Parliament by Presidential Proclamation whenever he wanted before the five-year term had expired. As the proclamation triggered the ensuing timetable for a general election, this gave the President choice and control over when elections were held. The Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution Making Process [COPAC] were determined that Parliament should not be curtailed at the President’s call, but should in normal circumstances live out its full five-year span.
This timeframe below is based on “normal circumstances”. [For exceptional circumstances see last paragraph.]
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