PF  has  been  forced  to  make  any  concessions  towards  better  elections  in  future,  including  the  BVR   process.  But  the  downside  of  the  outcries  and  suspicions  that  inevitably  surround  any  election-­‐ related  issue  in  Zimbabwe  is  that  it  feeds  into  voter  apathy,  and  also  makes  the  opposition   reluctant  to  engage  with  state-­‐driven  processes,  even  when  it  may  be  in  their  interests.  The  state  of   the  political  opposition,  in  terms  of  their  fragmentation  and  infighting,  as  well  as  their  lack  of   financial  resources,  undoubtedly  impacted  on  their  ability  to  do  any  sizeable  campaigns   encouraging  voter  registration.         Registration  apathy:  Bulawayo,  Matabeleland  South,  Harare     ZEC  projected  a  national  voter  population,  based  on  ZIMSTATS  figures,  of  a  possible  7,  224  million   voters    in  Zimbabwe.84  They  reported  the  voters  roll  used  in  the  2013  elections  had  around  5,8   million  voters,  with  more  than  3  million  who  voted.  However,  in  the  early  stages  of  the  blitz,  voter   registration  was  worryingly  slow.  Even  though  registration  picked  up  markedly  later  in  the  process,   ZEC  conceded  that  it  would  be  ‘impossible’  to  reach  the  initial  target  of  7  million  voters,  and   downsized  this  to  5  million  –  a  target  that  was  finally  slightly  exceeded.  This  target  represented   around  70%  of  those  eligible.       Each  province  has  different  populations  and  correspondingly  different  numbers  of  expected  voters.   According  to  ZEC,  based  on  ZIMSTATS  projected  figures  per  province,  Graph  1  shows  the  numbers   of  voters  expected  to  register  by  province  in  the  course  of  BVR.     Graph  1     Projected   Numbers  of  Possible  Voters  by  Province:   ZEC 1600000 1345818 1400000 1155567 1200000 1000000 735790 800000 600000 400000 912762 865815 834414 754314 620279 409389 356586 389592 200000 0                                                                                                               84  ZEC  statistical  analyses  available  on  their  website.  www.zec.gov.zw.       24