be achieved through harmonisation of the Census and Statistic Act to the Constitution, or through a Constitutional Amendment, possibly reducing the timeline for delimitation from 10 to 5 years to synchronise delimitation and with future census exercises. There is likely to be resistance to amending the Census and Statics Act since a census is not just conducted for the purpose of delimiting boundaries. An early delimitation process presents additional challenges as this process also relies on information provided in the voters roll, more particularly the registered number of voters. At the moment, ZEC has indicated that they are going to update the voters roll to become a biometric voters’ roll. No timelines have been confirmed for this exercise. Any delimitation process that is done before this exercise is complete will rely on the old voters roll that has been criticised as being inaccurate and highly unreliable. 7. Challenges and recommendations relating to the Delimitation Process 7.1 Independence of ZEC and fulfilment of delimitation mandate The Constitution still creates room for the involvement of interested parties in delimitation, being the executive and legislature. This affects the independence of ZEC. ZEC does not necessarily have to disclose its budget for delimitation in terms of the laws.  Ideally, the Constitution must bestow the sole responsibility of delimiting constituency boundaries to ZEC and exclude candidates such as the President and even members of parliament.  ZEC must set its delimitation budget in consultation with relevant stakeholders and all its operations during the delimitation process must be as transparent as possible. 7.2 Timing In the past, demarcation of boundaries has failed to be done within the set timeframes as provided by the law. Although Zimbabwe is said to be experiencing a slow population growth rate, social, economic and political factors continue to cause significant changes in rural to urban migration and vice versa. While the Constitution 18 | P a g e

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