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which indicated that June 28 would be Thursday instead of Friday, for the sitting of the Nomination Court.
Statutory Instrument 86 of 2013 contained the Nomination Court sitting day with the error. This was corrected in Statutory Instrument 96 of 2013 and the Nomination Court sat in various provinces yesterday to receive names of presidential, national assembly, senate and local authority candidates for the July 31 harmonised elections.
“It is hereby notified, for general information, that Proclamation 2 of 2013, published in Statutory Instrument 86 of 2013, contained an error,” read a supplement to the Government Gazette.
“That statutory instrument is corrected by the deletion on pages 624 and 625 of ‘Thursday’ wherever it appears and the substitution with ‘Friday’.”
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai had taken advantage of the typographical error and on Monday based his application at the Constitutional Court seeking an extension of the election date from July 31 on the error.
The move was described by legal experts and analysts as “baseless and invalid”.
Mr Tsvangirai argued that President Mugabe had set a non-existent day for the sitting of the Nomination Court, saying Thursday June 28 does not exist on the calendar.
Legal experts dismissed the Prime Minister’s argument, saying specification of the day was just a descriptive aspect which is of no legal consequence to the nomination date.
They said what was important was that the court had ordered the President to fix a date, not a day for the elections.
Meanwhile, co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone yesterday announced dates for the 2014 public holidays in terms of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act (Chapter 10:21).
The dates, published in the Government Gazette, did not include days which the President may declare to be public holidays in terms of Section 2 (2) of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act (Chapter 10:21).
New Year’s Day will be on Wednesday January 1 while the Independence Day will be celebrated on the same day with Good Friday on Friday, April 18.
Easter Saturday will be on Saturday April 19, Easter Sunday (Sunday April 20) and Easter Monday (Monday, April 21).
Other public holidays are Workers Day (Thursday, May 1), Africa Day (Sunday, May 25), Public Holiday (Monday May 26), Heroes Day (Monday August 11), Defence Forces Day (Tuesday August 12), National Unity Day (Monday December 22), Christmas Day (Thursday December 25) and Public Holiday (Friday, December 26).
Online Reporter