Top Zimbabwe Court Orders Vote by July 31

Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court on Friday ordered President Robert Mugabe to set a date for crucial elections, which will end an uneasy power-sharing government, before the end of July.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku ordered the 89-year-old Mugabe to "proclaim as soon as possible a date for the holding of presidential elections, general elections and elections of members of governing bodies of local authorities".

He added that the vote should take place "no later than the 31st of July 2013."

But the office of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai -- who is in an uncomfortable coalition government with Mugabe -- reacted angrily to the ruling, saying the court had overstepped its authority.

The case was brought by a freelance journalist Jealous Mawarire who asked the court to compel Mugabe to announce an election date before the tenure of the current parliament ends on June 29.

Tsvangirai's spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said in a statement that the ruling "is evidence that the court has overstepped its mandate."

The "court has no power whatsoever to set an election date. An election date is the responsibility of the executive," he said.

Zimbabwe's new constitution, signed into law earlier this month, allows elections to be held up to four months after the dissolution of parliament.

But Mawarire said that delaying elections by four months after parliament is dissolved went against the tenets of democracy.

In his application, Mawarire argued that the dissolution of parliament should be immediately followed by elections to avoid a situation where Mugabe -- who has been in power since 1980 -- would run the country single-handedly.

"The constitution is there to give us guidelines, so that those who are in power would not just call for elections when they think it's expedient for them to do that," he said.

He told reporters outside the courthouse that "the issue of when elections are supposed to be conducted has become a very big issue".

Mugabe and his allies want elections as early as June but his power-sharing partner and longtime political rival Morgan Tsvangirai wants reforms first to ensure a free and fair vote before the poll is held.

On May 22, Mugabe signed Zimbabwe's new constitution into law, allowing for the application of a battery of reforms.

Under the new law, presidents will now be limited to two five-year terms and the post of prime minister will be scrapped when a new government is voted in.

But there are doubts as to whether all the reforms can be implemented quickly enough to ensure a fair election.

The prime minister's office said more time was needed to push through the reforms and ensure voter registration, which re-opens on Monday, is finalized in time.

The election date would only come out of "political pronouncements in which the judiciary has no role to play", it said.

Meanwhile, the southern African regional bloc SADC said it plans to hold a special summit next month to assess Zimbabwe's readiness for the general elections.

"There will be a summit on the progress and roadmap to elections in June," Lindiwe Zulu, a member of SADC's South African team of facilitators on Zimbabwe political talks, told Agence France Presse.

The summit will be held in the Mozambican capital Maputo but no exact date has yet been set.

The meeting will review a number of issues, including the cash-strapped government's efforts to raise the $132-million (101-million euro) election budget.