police officers should be used for security at polling stations and these officers must not be located inside polling stations. Electoral Roll The accuracy and integrity of voters’ roll is an essential component of free and fair elections. ZESN has repeatedly pointed out that the current electoral roll is highly inaccurate and needs complete overhaul before next general elections. Claims of duplicate entries, voters enrolled in wrong constituencies, eligible voters being left off, and, dead persons remaining on roll- continue to be reported. Ideally, an audit of constituency roll should be conducted and anomalies rectified before by-election. Voter Registration Presently ZEC supervises electoral processes while voter registration is done by the Registrar General. ZESN recommends that the function of voter registration be removed from the Registrar-General’s Office and taken over by the Electoral Commission using staff appointed by the Electoral Commission. Ballot Papers The Electoral Act must be changed to require the Electoral Commission to disclose promptly the number of ballot papers printed for an election and to disclose other such information, for example the number of ballot-boxes issued to each polling station. Availability of Electoral Rolls In last election, electronic roll was made available to political parties but at considerable cost and not in computer searchable format. ZESN recommends that they be in computer searchable format. ZESN also recommends that roll must be available both in electronic and printed form and be made available free of charge to polling agents, observers and political parties. Counting and Tabulation of Results Counting and tabulation of results must be properly done within the provisions of the Electoral Act. The counting and collation processes should be done in the presence of candidates or their polling agents. After counting of the votes and posting of results outside polling stations, results must be sent to the Ward Collation Centre where they are collated and verified. The collated results should be posted outside the Ward Centers. These results should be immediately transmitted to the constituency elections officer for collation and verification who will declare the results and post them outside the Constituency Collation Centre. These processes must be done efficiently and expeditiously after polling has taken place with no unreasonable delay in announcing the results. Any recounts of votes should only take place after the announcement of the results. Observers Independent observation of elections is vital part of fair electoral process as it lends credibility to the process. Existing law relating to observers is highly restrictive and should be reformed before by-elections are held. Local and international observers should be free to observe all by-elections, should be free to observe during the lead up period to the referendum, should be free to observe the voting process and the collation and announcement of results and the period following the announcement of results. The accreditation of observers should fall under the management and control of ZEC. There is also need to remove veto power of Justice and Foreign Ministers to exclude persons or organizations government does not want to observe elections.