The NCA working with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the student movement and the opposition MDC party – then a single party led by Tsvangirai – masterminded the campaign for a No-vote against the government-sponsored draft constitution in February 2000. The fresh attempt to write a new constitution follows formation last February of a coalition government by Zanu (PF), MDC-T and the smaller MDC-M party of Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and is part of requirements of a September 2008 power-sharing deal signed by the three parties.
If approved by Zimbabweans in a referendum the draft constitution will be taken to Parliament for enactment, with the coalition government expected to call fresh elections once a new constitution is in place. It is however not clear whether the government will call new elections immediately after a new constitution is enacted or whether it will wait until expiry of its legal life span in 2013. The forthcoming consultative phase of Zimbabwe’s constitutional revision process will last about three months, followed by the process of drafting the document, then a and national referendum by September or October