Harare - Zimbabwe's supreme court has ordered President Robert Mugabe to call by-elections in three constituencies, a decision that could boost his rivals' majority in parliament, a lawyer said.
"The court has ordered the president to issue a notice by August 30 for new elections to be held in the three constituencies of Nkayi South, Bulilima East and Lupane East," lawyer Ndabezinhle Mazibuko, who represented the lawmakers who formerly held the seats, told AFP.
The order, which threw out an appeal by the veteran leader, means that after he calls the by-elections, a nomination court must sit and set a polling date for the three south-western constituencies.
The elections must be held within 50 days of the court's sitting.
The seats fell vacant after lawmakers from a splinter group of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party crossed the aisle to join Tsvangirai's faction.
They were expelled from their party in 2009 and lost their parliamentary seats.
The ruling handed down on Thursday but made public Friday could see a change in the composition of the lower house of parliament.
The MDC currently holds 96 seats and Mugabe's ZANU-PF has 91. The three seats are in Tsvangirai's stronghold and are likely to be won by the party.
The ruling is likely to further strain relations in Zimbabwe's shaky power-sharing government, formed three years ago by longtime rivals Mugabe and Tsvangirai to avoid a tip into full-fledged conflict in the aftermath of a bloody presidential run-off election in 2008. - Sapa-AFP
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