By the time the ZEC was formally operational, many key steps in the electoral process had already been completed under the supervision of the ESC and other electoral institutions. The ESC is a partisan body, composed solely of presidential appointees, and mandated in the Constitution to be an independent supervisory authority. The longserving Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, a self-professed ZANU PF loyalist who has had a number of court judgments against his conduct of elections,13 and the Elections Directorate, presided over voters’ registration between May and July 2004.14 The Delimitation Commission, which is made up of presidential appointees, delimited the district boundaries, and the Registrar-General organized the inspection of the voters’ roll and the nomination courts where parliamentary candidates are nominated. Even after the ZEC assumed its duties, questions remained about the relative authority of the ZEC and the ESC. In February, Joyce Kazembe, an ESC commissioner, reportedly said: “The ESC is the overall authority of supervision of elections by virtue of constitutional provisions. We have the final say on whether they had been run properly.”15 The ZEC Act has not provided an impartial, independent, and inclusive electoral supervisory body. Rather, it has merely added another partisan supervisory body—and done so too late for it to play a role in key electoral processes. Under the Electoral Act, the ZEC can require the chairpersons of the commissions in charge of the public service and the uniformed services—the prisons service, the defense services, and the police service—to second their employees to serve under the control and direction of the ZEC as constituency elections officers and polling officers.16 According to one lawyer, “The use of personnel from these services [composed of ruling party loyalists] is likely to create the impression that these persons will carry out their 13 On the court challenge by Margaret Dongo in 1995, see John Mw Makumbe and Daniel Compagnon, Behind the smokescreen. The Politics of Zimbabwe’s 1995 General Elections (University of Zimbabwe Publications, 2000); Dorman, 2005, p.17 on the Supreme Court’s judgment that the Registrar-General had not complied with regulations concerning the postal ballots of 6,000 military serving in DRC and that those ballots were therefore invalid. ZESN, The Electoral Bill, 2004 (HB 19, 2004). A Commentary, p. 21: “The performance of the present Registrar-General in past elections has been severely criticised. His competence and integrity have been called into question and he is widely perceived as being partisan in favour of the ruling party.” 14 The Herald, 8 November 2005, “Voters’ roll solid, second to none: Moyo”. 15 Sokwanele, Mauritius Watch, Issue 18, 28 February 2005, citing the Daily Mirror, February 23 2005. 16 In terms of section 51 of the Electoral Act of 2005, the constituency elections officer shall determine the number and location of polling stations. Section 83 of the Electoral Act, 2005 empowers an electoral officer— which includes constituency elections officers and polling officers—to exclude an election agent, polling agent, monitor or observer from any polling station or constituency center if they breach the code of conduct set out in the First Schedule. Section 17, Electoral Act, 2005 empowers the ZEC to second employees from the service commissions and to direct and control them. 7