ROLL • Clause 42 introduces a new section 22A by which a new system of voting and the voters’ roll whereby there will be permanent polling stations and voters rolls will be based on polling stations rather than constituencies or wards. The current system allows registered voters to vote at any of the polling stations located in the ward. • However, these electoral landscape-changing provisions will not come into operation immediately, but only when the Commission has prepared all the polling-station voters rolls. The Commission will publish a notice in the Gazette commencing the operation of Section 22A. • This clause also includes consequential amendments to the Act that will come into effect upon the publication of the notice. • On analysis, this provision will introduce a fundamental change in the way voting is conducted in Zimbabwe. In past elections, particularly in the March 2008 there were allegations of doublevoting as voters within a constituency could move from one polling station to another and avoid detection. Polling station based voters’ rolls will mean that a person can only vote in the polling station where his name is registered on the roll unless an exception applies. This will promote transparency and credibility of the system. Nevertheless, being a completely new system, it will be necessary to conduct extensive and effective voter education campaigns to ensure an easier change from the present system to the polling station-specific voters` roll. • However, there are two negatives that should be considered regarding the use of the pollingstation specific voters’ roll. These are likely to be smaller and therefore very specific making it easier for identification of communities that would have voted for or against a particular political party or candidate. If the results overwhelmingly favour a particular candidate, the risk is that the local community will become an easy target for post-election violence. • The other downside of the polling-station specific voters roll occurs where voters are otherwise displaced during elections. Incidents of voter displacement occurred in the 2008 election. If unable to access the specific polling station such voters would be unable to exercise their right to 8