Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2) Monitoring authority. Section 61(3) of the Constitution provides for the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) ‘to supervise the registration of voters and the conduct of elections’ to both Parliament and local authorities. The Electoral (Amendment) Regulations, 2000 (No. 7) (Statutory Instrument 161A of 2000), published on 7 June 2000, removed authority to accredit observers/monitors from the ESC and gave it to the Registrar-General. The ESC viewed the accreditation requirement as a usurpation of its constitutional authority (s.61(6)) to supervise elections independently of any direction or control by any other person or authority. On 13 June 2000 the ESC launched an (unsuccessful) action in the High Court to challenge SI 161A/2000. (3) Deferral of the Nomination Courts sitting dates from 29 May to 3 June.xlv (4) Reduction of the Electoral Act’s 21-day provision between nomination and polling to 20 days. (5) Extension of the voter registration exercise from 16 April to June 12. Voter Registrationxlvi In early January, there was no agreement between government, opposition parties and civic associations as to how voter registration should be conducted. A Zanu-PF MP noted that ‘whatever is undertaken by the Registrar-General’s office is not believed in by many people because they believe he is in the service or the system is in the service of the present government’.xlvii At a mid-January meeting of representatives of over 50 political parties, civic and non-governmental organisations, the ESC set up a steering committee to monitor voter registration, the referendum and the election. Before resigning, ESC chairman, Anglican Bishop Peter Hatendi, criticised the Referendums Act for not giving the ESC adequate monitoring authority. The three remaining members later protested that Government had ignored ESC recommendations. The acting chairperson later supported an independent electoral commission. Just before the election, the State President replaced her with a former military intelligence chief. In addition to normal registration at its fixed offices, the Ministry of Home Affairs organised a mobile registration programme, for births and deathsxlviii as well as voter registration, and house-tohouse voter registration - by 7 040 unemployed school-leavers paid Z$300 per day from 16 February. xlix The mobile programme was poorly advertised but ran from 12 January to mid-March. The schedule of venues and dates for both mobile and fixed registration centres was published on the day the exercise began. It was incomplete: eg. Avondale Primary School was not listed but housed a registration team for nearly a week. A single venue (Belvedere Technical Teacher’s College) was listed to serve both Harare Central and Mabvuku. Being to the west of Harare city centre, it was particularly inconvenient for Mabvuku residents living on the eastern boundary. Many wishing to register were reportedly turned away because the offices did not have registration forms. Few people registered initially, though 1,5 million were reported to have registered by 3 March. Very long queues in the last week saw the deadline extended to the end of March, when there were still long queues. A Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) survey found that, with only one week to the final deadline, of 2 079 people interviewed in 18 districts, 44% remained unregistered. Although voter registration at fixed offices is an ongoing, continuous exercise, except when the 22