The Harare North 2008 scenario clearly shows how stand allocations, especially under housing cooperatives, have been easily manipulated in the past. This has resulted in inflated numbers of registered voters in certain areas, where ordinarily the population density would be low. In this case, those registered under the housing cooperative did not even reside at the locations identified in the voters’ roll. While this process of delimitation has not been managed well in the past, conducted in haste, and shrouded in secrecy, which has led to chaos and confusion for voters during the polls, the process of demarcating boundaries has never been challenged in courts. This has also provided room for gerrymandering. Generally, the delimitation reports have been provided late, making it virtually impossible for the proposed boundaries and maps to be scrutinised by interested parties. Other than processes relating to boundary determination carried out directly by ZEC, forced evictions have also been regularly experienced in the period leading up to elections, or after elections, as mentioned above. This has led to internal displacements. In 2005, Operation Murambatsvina, resulted in forced demolitions of structures and houses that had been built without the approval of the local authorities. Those affected were widely perceived to have been Movement for Democratic Change MDC supporters. After the 2013 elections, some forced demolitions have occurred in some suburbs of Harare, especially in the high-density areas. These demolitions have continued to occur in spite of a number of court orders preventing council officials from demolishing houses and evicting residents without court orders. 11 In some of these cases the houses have been demolished after being constructed on undesignated land that would have been allocated to the residents by housing cooperatives. 3. Principles of boundary delimitation and best practices There are five internationally-accepted principles that are proposed to guide 11 See the case of Jean Pierre Dusabe and another v City of Harare and others High Court Harare Unreported Court Order 820/2016; Peter Makani and 5 Others v Epworth Local Board and 4 Others Unreported High Court Harare Judgment 8596/2014. 7|Page