HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said he plans to hold a constitutional referendum in November and a national election in March, according to a court filing made Thursday.

The dates will be finalized soon, he said, according to the documents filed in a court in Harare, the southern African nation’s capital.

“These events are the referendum expected to take place during the first week of November, the by-elections and harmonized elections,” Mugabe said, according to the papers seen by Bloomberg.

The national election will be held “in the last week of March 2013 and a proclamation to this effect will be made at the appropriate time.”

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party ruled the country for almost three decades until the South African Development Community bloc forced it to share power with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and a splinter faction after a disputed 2009 election.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, and the other MDC faction, rejected proposed constitutional changes made by Zanu-PF.

The parties must have the referendum on the constitution before the elections, according to the SADC-brokered agreement.