Gazetting of Presidential Proclamation of a General Election
The President still has the prerogative of setting the date [gazetting the Proclamation] for the General Elections, but he must do so within the parameters
1. fixed by the Constitution for polling date and
2. fixed by the Constitution and the Electoral Act for the length of time between the proclamation and polling.
The constitutional parameters for polling day have been set out in the paragraph above. The number of days between the proclamation and polling day are as follows:
• Section 157 of the Constitution, stipulates the minimum period from proclamation to nomination date [14 days], and from nomination date to polling date [30 days]. That is, there has to be a minimum of 44 days from the proclamation date to polling.
• Section 38 of the Electoral Act stipulates a maximum 84 days between proclamation and polling.
So the Proclamation must be not less than 44 and not more than 84 days before the polling day chosen
This leaves several options for the proclamation date based on the earliest and latest date set by the Constitution and Electoral Act for polling.
Based on the earliest polling date of 23rd July 2018 the Proclamation must be gazetted in the period 30th April to 9th June 2018
Based on the latest polling date of 21st August 2018, the Proclamation must be gazetted in the period 30th May to 9th July 2018
Taking into account the maximum of 84 days and minimum of 44 days between proclamation and polling this means that:
So The earliest possible proclamation date is Monday 30th April 2018 for polling on Monday 23rd July [leaving an 84-day period from proclamation to polling]
And The latest possible proclamation date is Monday 9th July 2018 for polling on Wednesday 21st August [leaving a 44-day period from proclamation to polling].
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