16 Electoral system and processes timelines for registration, nomination court and closing of the voters’ roll for the 31 July election. All in all, the involvement of the R-G whose office has proved to be controversial in voter registration and accused of incompetence and lack of transparency in the voter registration exercise has eroded public confidence in the voter registration and inspection aspects of the electoral process. 2.7 Access to voters’ roll The voters’ roll is a public document which is open for inspection by members of the public free of charge.67There is an obligation imposed on the ZEC to provide candidates, political parties, observer groups and even individuals, with an electronic or hard copy of the voters’ roll at a reasonable cost. This provision is progressive. On a positive note, the searchable format of the voters’ roll, as stipulated by law, will allow for analysis and comparison with previous voters’ lists and this is commendable.68However it appears that these copies were (and continue not to be) provided within a reasonable time to allow for a comprehensive inspection and audit of a roll whose state has been controversial for a number of years. The evolution of the law relating to nomination of candidates and closure of voters’ roll also presented challenges. Instead of the voters’ roll closing before the process of nomination of candidates, the voters’ roll was only closed 12 days after nomination court for anyone who wanted to vote in the 2013 elections.69 This, again, was due to the imposition of an unworkable election date deadline by the Constitutional Court in the Mawarire case. Before the second exercise of the special intensive voter registration, accessing the voters’ roll proved to be a nightmare for some political candidates. A classic example was the case of Dabengwa and ZAPU v Chairperson of ZEC & 2 Others.70 Dabengwa started requesting the electronic voters’ roll from ZEC on 20 November 2012. There was no cooperation from the ZEC then. A number of letters were delivered and at one time Dabengwa was advised that he would be given the voters’ roll by 10 February 2013. When Justice Makarau was appointed in March 2013, Dabengwa started receiving meaningful replies to his requests, but still was not provided with a copy of the roll. In May 2013, a case was filed against ZEC in the High Court, and it was only then that an electronic copy was provided in June 2013 to avert litigation. The unwillingness of the R-G to submit himself, the registration and update exercise and the voters’ roll itself to scrutiny continued. On 16 July, he filed an Urgent Chamber Application in the High Court and received an ex parte order against the Research and Advocacy Unit in the matter of Registrar General v The Research and Advocacy Unit and 67 68 69 70 Section 21(1) of the Electoral Act. Section of 21(7) of the Electoral Act. Section 26A of the Electoral Act. Unreported High Court case 3740/2013.