investigated and submitted for prosecution. Two weeks before the by-election, the ZRP and JSC notified stakeholders that they had allocated officers for delivering on that mandate. The ZHRC has been deploying human rights investigators since the Norton by-election that was held in 2016. On Election Day, ZRP assigned officers to lead investigations while the JSC designated three magistrates to preside over reported disputes. On the ground, monitoring human rights abuses was the ZHRC. The ZHRC followed up on two reports of intimidation before Election Day. First report was that of a woman who was physically assaulted by ZANU PF supporters after she was seen distributing fliers of the NCA political party. The woman allegedly reported to the police and was threatened to withdraw the case. The second report was on one Jerifanos Chakani of Free Congress who was physically assaulted by Stoner Mhango of Zanu PF, nephew to Mhango a contesting candidate. The issue was addressed. 4.0. How was the overall conduct of the Mwenezi East by-election? The Administration of the Election? Ahead of the by-election, voter registration was conducted by ZEC from 23 February to 01 March 2017. According to ZEC, 28 326 registered voters were on the Main Voters’ Roll (one recently compiled by ZEC) and 18 760 registered voters on the Supplementary Voters’ Roll (an updated 2013 voters roll). Failure by the government to ensure provision of necessary identity documents to citizens led to disenfranchisement of some prospective voters. This was noted on Election Day whereby some prospective voters were turned away because they had defaced National Identity Cards or attempted to use party identity cards. Voter education in Mwenezi East constituency was conducted by ZEC and commenced in February 2017 in all the eight wards. In preparation for the by-election, ZEC was able to deliver all the required materials on time to all polling stations. A test run for the materials was conducted by ZEC with some political party candidates witnessing the process. On Election Day, most polling stations were open by 07:00 hours. At most polling stations, the queues were short and by midday there were no queues at all as people were quickly moving in and out of polling stations. At 19:00 hours, all the polling stations had closed and the counting process began. Results were officially announced by ZEC and pasted outside all polling stations. 4.1. The need for delimitation The case of Ward 13 of Mwenezi East Constituency points to legal challenges associated with delimitation. The ward experienced an increase in population after the relocation of victims of the Tokwe Mukosi dam floods. This meant an unprecedented growth of registered voters to more than 19 000 while other wards have an average of 2 000 voters. While ZEC administratively managed the possible crisis by allocating 33 polling stations, the legal problems need to be addressed. Section 161 (6) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that “…no constituency or ward of the local authority concerned may have more than twenty percent more or fewer registered voters than the other such constituencies or wards.” 3|Page