ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections A SADC summit held on in Maputo on 15 June encouraged the government of Zimbabwe to “seek more time beyond 31 July deadline for holding the harmonized elections”26. An application to extend the deadline for election was duly filed by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa on 18 June. On 4 July the Constitutional Court confirmed its earlier ruling that elections should be held by 31 July. In terms of the electoral roadmap set out with the facilitation of SADC and the Global Political Agreement, GPA most of the reforms had not been made by the time the election date was announced. Voter registration Voter registration in Zimbabwe is continuous with voters free to register at district offices in between elections (section 17A of the Electoral Act). The Registrar-General is supposed to update the voters’ roll using these new registrants by deleting dead people from the roll, which should be done seamlessly as the Registrar-General of voters is also the Registrar-General of deaths. However, as most do not take advantage of this facility for continuous registration, the Registrar-General regularly conducts electionspecific voter registration drives. As such, from 29 April to 19 May, the Registrar-General, under the supervision of ZEC, conducted a mobile voter registration throughout the country. However, the funds provided were not sufficient as there were problems with a lack of personnel, materials and other resources during the exercise. There was also very poor publicity and voter education. Some citizens did not know that voter registration was taking place. In addition, many prospective registrants arrived at registration centres without knowing the requirements for registration. The requirement for proof of residence thwarted many prospective registrants, particularly in urban areas. In the rural areas the traditional authorities usually supply proof of residence. But some of them allegedly refused to authenticate prospective voters who were considered to be unsupportive of ZANUPF in violation of one of the principles of the GPA and the new Constitution that traditional authorities should be non-partisan. Former aliens were also turned away as they had to renounce their alien status first and formalise their citizenship before being allowed to register. They were also forced to pay a fee for this renunciation, contrary to announcements by the Registrar-General. Some centres did not open for long enough, and in some areas, such as Harare, the number and location of the registration centres were not conducive for people to come and register. 26 Communiqué of the Extraordinary Summit of the SADC Heads of State and Government, 15 June 2013. 28 | P a g e