urban areas and increases in the rural areas where the 2002 census did not support such population changes, Morgan Tsvangirai called for an independent audit of the voters’ roll.26 ZANU PF secretary for information, Nathan Shamuyarira rejected the MDC president’s accusation and said: “We (the government) are setting up an independent commission to conduct the elections and they (the MDC) can complain there.”27 However, when President Mugabe announced the ZEC chair on January 20, 2005, it was none other than Judge Chiweshe the Delimitation Commission chair. The MDC and the ZESN pointed out that to lodge a complaint about the delimitation process to the ZEC was futile because the Delimitation Commission chairman was also the ZEC chairman.28 When the MDC’s Secretary General wrote to the Delimitation Commission chair to complain that “the voters’ roll information submitted to your commission is incomplete and disenfranchises thousands of persons who should be entitled to vote,”29 the then Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo replied that if the MDC case were genuine, it would have been raised four months earlier.30 In fact, as noted above, the MDC had complained to the ESC about the discriminatory and secretive nature of the voter registration process. The Delimitation Report was presented to President Mugabe on December 20, 2004. It merged two urban constituencies in Bulawayo and two in Harare, all four currently occupied by MDC representatives, and it merged a current MDC-held constituency in Matabeleland South with one held by ZANU PF. It also created three new rural constituencies.31 These boundary changes reduce the number of seats in the MDC’s urban strongholds and increase the number of seats in ZANU PF’s rural strongholds. Judge Chiweshe attributed the reversal in rural-urban migration to the land reform program.32 However, a ZANU PF central committee member admitted to Human 26 Zimbabwe Independent, October 29, 2004, “Zesn calls for delay of parliamentary poll”. An MDC spokesman said a study comparing the current voters’ roll with the one used for the March 2002 presidential election showed a decline in registered voters in Harare from nearly 879,000 names to some 832,000. Yet the last census showed that Harare’s population had increased by 500,000 voters or 30%. Mashonaland Central showed an increase of 187, 113 registered voters on the current voters’ roll over the census figures. 27 Zimbabwe Independent, October 29, 2004, “Zesn calls for delay of parliamentary poll”. 28 Human Rights Watch interviews with Dr. Matchaba-Hove, ZESN chairman, Harare, February 16, 2005 and with MDC MP and candidate for Glen Norah, Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga and shadow foreign affairs minister and MDC candidate for Gwanda South, Paul Temba Nyathi, Harare, February 8, 2005, see also Sunday Mirror, Zimbabwe, February 13, 2005, Tawanda Majoni, “Row over constituency boundaries”. 29 New Zimbabwe, November 9, 2004, “Sparks fly over voters’ roll tampering”. Human Rights Watch interview with MDC Secretary General Welshman Ncube, December 17, 2004. 30 The Herald, November 8, 2004, “Voters’ roll solid, second to none: Moyo”. 31 Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Reginald Matchaba-Hove, ZESN Chairman, Harare, February 16 2005, The delimitation is available in Gazette Extraordinary January 13, 2005, Proclamation 1 2005, SI 3A of 2005. 32 Even before the Delimitation Report, Crisis Coalition had predicted that the re-drawing of boundaries would be done to give ZANU PF leverage, and the MDC’s Secretary-General claimed he had documentation that the 9