On 31 July, High Court judge Joseph Mafusire ordered the ZEC to furnish Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party with a hard copy of the voters’ roll by 12pm that day. MDC secretary general Tendai Biti had filed an urgent court application demanding an electronic voters’ roll in line with the Electoral Act. Biti cited ZEC and Registrar of Voters Tobaiwa Mudede as respondents. He said despite numerous and persistent demands, they had been denied access to the voters’ roll. In the application, Biti said his party’s access to the voters’ roll was critical and indispensable for it to be able to verify the outcome of the elections, “without access to the voters’ roll there is no way a credible election can be conducted.” However, ZEC told the court that its system had developed a technical fault, which rendered it unable to provide the MDC with an electronic voters’ roll. Bhatasara told the Daily News that ZEC was to provide with an electronic voters’ roll to MDC once its system was fixed. Role of Israeli company Nikuv According to various unverified reports, in particular the MDC election dossier19, the ZANU PF assigned Nikuv, an Israeli firm to spearhead, control and direct the rigging mission through working with the Registrar General on the processes of voter registration and preparation of the voters’ roll. Nikuv Projects were granted a contract to help rig the 2013 elections by Mugabe himself in June 2012 on the strength of previous work that the Israeli firm had carried out for the Zanu PF regime since elections in 2002. CEO for the Israeli firm, Emmanuel Antebi visited Mugabe in June 2012 as a culmination of meetings and engagements with Emmerson Mnangagwa and other senior Zanu PF officials in the rigging high command. The contract for rigging the 2013 elections was estimated to be worth US$13million, which the Zanu PF regime paid in staggered instalments and batches, starting from November 2012. The Registrar’s failure to produce the voters’ roll has meant that the above allegations have largely remained unverified. Responses to the elections U.S. On 3 August 2013, the U.S. government issued a statement on the elections that “Zimbabweans voted in their country’s first national elections this week since the violent and disputed polls in 2008. These elections were an opportunity for Zimbabwe to move forward on a democratic path and provide a foundation for growth and prosperity. The people of Zimbabwe should be commended for rejecting violence and showing their commitment to the democratic process. But make no mistake: in light of substantial electoral irregularities reported by domestic and regional observers, the United States does not believe that the results announced today represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people.” Though the US government was restricted from monitoring the elections, the balance of evidence indicates that the announcement was the culmination of a deeply flawed process. There were irregularities in the provision and composition of the voters roll. The parties had unequal access to state media. The security sector did not safeguard the electoral process on an even-handed basis. And the government failed to implement the political reforms mandated by Zimbabwe’s new constitution, the Global Political Agreement, and the region. The U.S government urged the SADC and the AU to address their concerns in relation to the electoral process, as well as those raised by domestic monitoring groups. The Government of Zimbabwe needs to chart a way forward that will 19 http://www.myzimbabwe.co.zw/gossip/7391-mdc-t-releases-detailed-election-rigging-report-mudede-instructed-towork-with-nikuv.html 50