other stakeholders have been pushing for a clean and credible voters’ roll that provides an accurate record of Zimbabweans eligible to vote. According to section 21 (1) of the Electoral Act, the voters’ roll is a public document which is open for inspection by members of the public free of charge. However, 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 years5. 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 and others in which Dabengwa started requesting the electronic voters’ roll from ZEC on 20 November 2012. Due to lack of co-operation from ZEC, a case was filed against ZEC in the High Court in May 2013 and it was only then that an electronic copy was provided in June 2013 to avert litigation.6 A more disturbing scenario was that four days before the July 2013 elections, and in spite of repeated requests, political parties had not yet been provided with copies of updated voters’ roll to be used in the elections. Methodology There are two major methods used, the component method and the mathematical method. The current methodology used the mathematical formula to make population projections. The alternative method was the component method where: P0 = initial population Pt = population after time t B = Births D = Deaths I = Immigrants 5 Zimbabwe - Ready for Elections? Pre-Election 2013 Report. A Publication of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,2013 6 Ibid 3

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