Boundary delimitation Article 161 of the Constitution empowers the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to delimit electoral boundaries for the purpose of electing Members of Parliament and local government authorities. In Zimbabwe, a boundary delimitation exercise is carried out following a population census; a census is held every ten years. For the 2018 Harmonised Elections, the constituency and ward boundaries were based on the 2008 delimitation report. Proclamation and election period In accordance with Section 144 of the Constitution, the Electoral Act prescribes in Section 38 that ‘the President, after consultation with the Commission’ shall proclaim the elections and fix relevant dates (notably for nominations and the polling day(s)). The polling day shall be a public holiday. The ‘election period’ means the period in time between the calling of the election and the declaration of the result of the poll; in the cases of constituencies and local authorities, the election period ends with the declaration of the result of the last constituency or ward. Political party funding The Political Parties (Finance) Act provides for public funding of qualifying political parties from the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund to be paid on an annual basis. Those political parties having obtained at least five per cent of the total number of votes cast in the most recent general election shall be entitled to the same proportion of total moneys appropriated. Donations are permitted to political parties, members and candidates other than from a foreign source. There appears to be no limitation on the amount of donations a political party, member or candidate may receive. The media Sections 60 and 61 of the Constitution guarantee, respectively, freedom of expression and of the media and access to information. State-owned media is to be independent in its editorial content, and is to ‘be impartial, and afford fair opportunity for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions’. Moreover, Section 155(2)(d) prescribes that the state must take all appropriate measures to ‘provide all political parties and candidates contesting an election or participating in a referendum with fair and equal access to electronic and print media, both public and private’. The ZEC is charged with monitoring the media. 17