ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections representatives. The downside is that voters do not have control of the representatives that end up being selected via proportional representation. It is up to the contesting parties to come up with their list of preferred candidates and in the order they prefer. Conduct of the Elections As explained elsewhere in this report, the 2013 elections were conducted in terms of the Electoral Act as amended by SI 85 of 2013, and in accordance with the new Constitution. Several provisions are pivotal to the conduct of the election. The Electoral Act provides for a ward-based voters’ roll. Accordingly, a person can only vote from the ward in which they are registered as a voter. Section 37C of the Electoral Act outlines the type of electoral centres established to process and tabulate all polling station results arising from the voting process. The new provision introduces electoral centres that conform to the new constitutional dispensation. The introduction of the quota system in the National Assembly and proportional representation for the Senate, in turn affects the electoral centres set up to accommodate the new electoral system. To deal with the new electoral system, SI 85 of 2013 creates six electoral centres, namely the National Command Centre, the provincial command centre, the presidential command centre, the constituency command centre, the district centre and the ward centre. Each of the electoral centres has certain responsibilities. The ward centre collates polling station results for presidential, National Assembly and ward votes, adding special votes and postal votes that will have been counted at the ward. The ward centre announces the outcome of ward elections and transmits collations of presidential and National Assembly votes to the presidential constituency centre and the constituency centre respectively. The presidential constituency centre in each province collates the ward collations for the presidential election votes and incorporates these into a return; distinctly indicating the results obtained in each ward in the constituency, and transmits these results to the provincial command centre. The National Assembly constituency centre collates the ward collations in respect of the National Assembly constituency election and incorporates these into a return distinctly indicating the results from each ward within the constituency. The centre then announces the results of the constituency election. It must transmit the collated returns to the provincial command centre. The provincial command centre collates the returns from the National Assembly constituency and the presidential constituency centre and incorporates these into a provincial return. It also must transmit to the National Command Centre duplicate copies of the National Assembly constituency and presidential constituency returns in the province. The National Assembly results in a province are used to allocate the proportional representation seats in the Senate, the National Assembly and the Provincial Council. The National Command Centre holds overall control of the whole election. The district centre’s role is to facilitate for the special voting in accordance with section 81A of the Electoral Act. 20 | P a g e