The Bill will not make any significant changes to the jurisdiction of the Electoral Court, which is restricted to the hearing of appeals and petitions under the Electoral Act. No attempt has been made to give the court power to adjudicate on other electoral disputes. The court, in other words, is largely restricted to deciding whether or not an election which has already taken place was free and fair. This is unfortunate: the court should be able to resolve expeditiously disputes before the election has taken place. The current Electoral Act requires the Court to determine election petitions within six months of the date of its presentation. The determination of pre-election disputes should be done fairly but within a very tight time frame. In the past many judgments of the High Court and Supreme Court in electoral cases appeared to have displayed bias in favour of the ruling party. It is hoped that the judges appointed by the Chief Justice as Electoral Court judges will adjudicate such cases on a scrupulously impartial basis. Delimitation of Wards and Constituencies The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is now responsible for delimiting constituencies and other electoral boundaries. The Commission will be obliged to give public notice before embarking on a delimitation exercise, and “so far as is practicable within the time available” will have to entertain representations from political parties and other interested parties who are likely to be affected by its decisions.15 The Constitution requires that the final delimitation report must be tabled in parliament. Any requirement of consultation is an improvement on the lack of openness that has characterised the delimitation process in previous years, but it is regrettable that consultation need not take place if the Commission is pressed for time as will be the case if new constituencies have to be delimited for an election in March next year. Before the 2005 parliamentary elections the current Chairperson of the Electoral Commission headed what was then a separate Delimitation Commission. That body redrew the constituency boundaries of a number of constituencies and it was alleged that these boundaries were redrawn in a manner that gave the ruling party an electoral advantage. Certain constituencies dominated by ZANU (PF) like Gokwe were split to create individual constituencies without any justification of demographic changes. On the other hand, some urban constituencies which are the stronghold of MDC support were redrawn to incorporate abutting rural areas where ZANU (PF) has support. For instance, in Mashonaland West the new constituency of Manyame was deliberately created to give ZANU (PF) a better electoral chance in this constituency. Presently only the President has the power to require the Commission to give “further consideration” to its report before finalising it. Because of the controversies that are likely to rage around the redrawing of constituency boundaries for the 2008 elections, after it publicises proposed changes, it should be compulsory for the Electoral Commission, to give political parties and other interested persons the opportunity to make meaningful representations about these changes. The Commission should then have the obligation to take these representations properly into account before finalising its work on drawing new boundaries. This should apply particularly to the extensive changes that will be necessitated by the large increase in numbers of seats in the lower house brought about by the recent constitutional amendments. The redrawing of these boundaries must not be rushed and there should be ample opportunity for objections to be taken into account. It would also be useful if the Commission made public the main criteria it took into account when arriving at its proposals for new boundaries. The tabling of the final delimitation report in parliament 15 Clause 28 of the Bill. 8