ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections Other problems identified were:       Failure to accredit civil society organisations to observe the voter registration. Lack of special measures and sensitivity for vulnerable groups, such as people living with disabilities, pregnant, nursing women, and the elderly. Insufficient information on voter registration procedures and requirements. Slow processing of potential voters and unprofessional conduct by voter registration officials leading to long queues. Disenfranchisement of Zimbabwean citizens still classified as “aliens”. Inadequate voter education as ZEC deployed only two people per ward to conduct voter education and this compromised the reach and quality of the education provided.27 While some Zimbabweans living in the country failed to register, other citizens did not even get that opportunity. The government has remained adamant that it would not allow out-of-country voting for ordinary citizens in the Diaspora, and this was confirmed by the Constitutional Court, which, on June 28 ruled against an application for the right to vote by a Zimbabwean citizen based in South Africa. The new Constitution allows prisoners the right to vote. But in another case of disenfranchisement, ZEC declared that prisoners would not be able to vote because the commission had not managed to put the mechanisms in place in time for the election on 31 July.28 To compound the doubts over ZEC’s election preparations, and particularly the credibility of the voters’ roll, a civil society NGO, the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) released a report at the beginning of July that showed disturbing levels of over-registration in the roll for all age groups over the age of 30. In some constituencies, RAU reported, the number of people registered exceeded the total population, and the number of people on the roll who were 100 years and over stood at 116,195 which, by any estimation, is highly unusual if true.29 A week before the election, the Registrar-General announced that 747,928 new voters had been added to the voters’ roll during the two voter registration drives and that the total voter population now stood at 6.4 million.30However, contrary to the provisions of the electoral law, no copies of the roll were 27 Civil society joint statement on observations on the mobile voter registration exercise. ‘Prison inmates won’t vote http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2013/07/12/prison-inmates-wont-vote-makarau/ 29 ‘‘Key statistics from the 2013 Voters’ Roll’ Research and Advocacy Unit. 30 ‘‘Mugabe can’t win’ Daily News 25 July 2013. 28 30 | P a g e