Zimbabwe – Ready for Elections? 27 processing of the applications, a total of just under 87 000 applications were approved, of which over 69 000 were for police, 15 000 for polling officers, and 2 000 prison officers. To date, the full list of those approved to vote by Special Vote have not been made public, although ZEC clearly indicated that the list would be available to anyone upon request. Further, requests made for clarifications regarding the inflated number of police officers have not been forthcoming, even after a High Court application was filed for this information to be released. In 2008, a total of only 4 350 police officers voted by postal ballot according to the executive summary of ZEC’s own election report. On 14 July, the first day of the Special Vote, the process proved to be chaotic, with severe challenges such as failure to deliver ballot papers on time, late commencement of actual voting, and no polling taking place at all in Masvingo province.132 At the close of the first day, ZEC announced that just over 6 000 ballot papers had been delivered to the 9 other provinces. Voting was painfully slow on the first day, and by the end of the second day, less than half the approved applicants had cast their ballots. Reports were received from a number of the polling stations that voting had continued after the closing time of 19:00 hours on 15 July 2013, and beyond midnight on the same day, thus falling foul of the electoral law. In terms of the new Constitution and the electoral laws, ZEC was obliged to ensure it was ready for polling to commence at 07:00 hours on 14 July and clearly it violated these provisions. At the end of this process a blame game ensued. Police accused the MDC-T for the failure of some of its force members to vote.133 ZEC argued that nomination court challenges filed by the MDC parties had contributed to the delay in printing ballot papers, although the challenges were negligible and would not have affected more than a handful of constituencies and/or local councils.134 The MDC-T blamed ZEC’s lack of preparedness for the chaotic process, while the state-controlled media sought to blame a ZEC commissioner, Geoff Feltoe for “sabotage” on behalf of the MDC parties, without providing any credible evidence of such allegations. What was clear was that, by its own admission, ZEC had acknowledged that the timelines set for elections were short.135 The Commission underestimated the burden that would be placed on its office in relation to organising the Special Vote. It appeared that, in fear of putting down its foot and insisting that it needed more time to prepare for the Special Vote and elections in general, ZEC was put under pressure by the Executive and by political players, to the detriment and disenfranchisement of thousands of Zimbabweans. This heightens fears of ZEC’s lack of independence and effectiveness and has seriously eroded public confidence that ZEC will be able to deliver an organised and “foolproof” election on 31 July 2013. The disappearance of the 132 “Slow start to special voting” The Herald (15 July 2013) p 1; F Share “ZEC blames delays on MDCs appeals” The Herald (15 July 2013) p 1; “Chaos as police, soldiers vote” Newsday (15 July 2013) p 1; H Kadirire “Chaos logistical bottlenecks mar special vote” Daily News (15 July 2013) p 3. 133 “Police blame MDC-T for voting chaos” Newsday (16 July 2013) p 3. 134 F Share “ZEC blames delays on MDCs appeals” The Herald (15 July 2013) p 1. 135 F Kwaramba “Poll crisis election schedule tight: ZEC boss” Daily News (5 June 2013) p 1.