It is Mogae's call

Political parties and the Independent Electoral Commission will have to wait and strain their ears in the hope that Mogae will call the by-election before he leaves office in March 2008.

Barulaganye Machacha, the Chief Elections Administrator at IEC, says that only the President is empowered to call a parliamentary by-election. Asked whether the law prescribes a time period within which a by-election should be held once a vacancy arises, she said there is no provision in the Act.