ensured that polling stations were located in places readily accessible to the public.22 Registration is now to be conducted on a continuous basis to keep the voters’ roll up-to-date.23 Crucially the new law has a section explicitly and unequivocally prohibiting intimidating practices during the campaign period.24 At the same time as the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, parliament amended other laws likely to have an effect on the electoral environment including the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) (referred to later in this report). Despite the improvements to the electoral laws, the late passage of the legislation created an extremely tight timetable for campaigning and for the ZEC to prepare for voting day scheduled for March 29, 2008: It allowed only three months of preparation for the country’s first synchronized elections. It also left very little time for key changes to be put into place, including changes to the composition of the electoral commissions as required by Constitutional Amendment No.18. Due to the increased number of parliamentary seats introduced by Constitutional Amendment No.18, a fresh delimitation exercise was carried out by the ZEC, but it was beset by problems. The Delimitation Report, which highlighted the new constituencies and wards (voting precincts), was only finalized on January 17, leaving no time for political parties to assess the changes or debate them in parliament (section 61 A (8) of the constitution provides that the president must table the preliminary delimitation report in parliament, but there was no initial debate on the report, and only one copy of the final report was presented before parliament, which adjourned before the report could be debated).25 The lack of debate around the delimitation of boundaries opened the ZEC to accusations that it had delimited the constituencies and wards in favor of the ruling party.26 22 Electoral Laws Amendment Act, 2007 (distributed by Veritus Trust), clause 38. 23 Ibid., clause 19. In addition, the commission is given the power to provide, within seven days after calling of the election concerned, to every political party and candidate contesting the election and every accredited observer group, one electronic copy of every voters’ roll to be used in the election. 24 Electoral Laws Amendment Act, 2007, clause 71. 25 Human Rights Watch interview with Noel Kututwa, ZESN chairperson, Harare, February 7, 2008. 26 Human Rights Watch interviews with MDC and ZESN officials, Harare, February 4–24, 2008. All Over Again 14