The exclusion of the police from the polling stations in the list of paragraph (2) above was an important point of this agreement. It was therefore a setback when the President on 17 March 2008 issued a so-called Statutory Instrument (No 43 of 2008) where he changed the election law to again allow police inside the polling stations. The regulation not only reintroduced the police officers into the polling stations, but it also included them on the list of people who should assist illiterate voters (Section 59 (1) and physically incapacitated voters (Section 60 (1)). The changes made to the law in January 2008 had stated that “the presiding officer, in the presence of two other electoral officers or employees of the Commission at the polling station, shall assist the voter…” This was changed to “the presiding officer, in the presence of two other electoral officers or employees of the Commission and a police officer on duty at the polling station, shall assist the voter…” Letting police officers assist such voters was by many seen as an intended attempt of intimidation introduced by the President. He made the change in accordance with a law permitting him to change laws when there was an urgent need, but there was clearly no urgency in this matter. After further negotiations on the election law the government gazetted an electoral amendment bill on 27 June, 2011. The bill again made it clear that the police could only enter a polling station upon the request of the presiding officer, or in order to vote. The bill introduced an addition to Section 55: “(7a) Police officers referred to in subsection (7)— (a) shall have the sole function of maintaining order and preventing contraventions of the law so that voters may freely cast their votes; (b) shall not interfere with the electoral processes at a polling station; (c) shall not enter a polling station except when called upon for assistance in terms of subsection (6) or to cast their votes in accordance with this Act; (d) when inside a polling station, shall exercise their duties under the direction and instruction of the presiding officer.” Before the bill was enacted as Act No 3 of 2012 the language was again changed. In Section 55 (2) (b) containing the list of people allowed in a polling station, a new line “(iiia) police officers on duty; and” was added. The language of the presidential decree of 2008 came back in paragraph (6): “A presiding officer may call upon a police officer for assistance in keeping order at the polling station and the area surrounding it, and every police officer so called upon shall provide whatever assistance is needed.” In addition, Article 59 (1) (b) allowed two election officers and a police officer on duty to assist an illiterate or physically handicapped person upon request, provided that the person does have a person of choice to do so. Even after the changes in 2012 and 2013, there were discussions about whether the new language still meant that police officers could only be present when called upon by the presiding officer. It is, however, quite clear that the explicit language limiting the police presence had been changed, and that the ZEC and the police did not interpret the provisions to limit the presence of police in the 2013 elections. 5.5 The Process of Counting, Tabulating and Publishing Results A major concern after the 2008 elections was the lack of transparency in the tabulation of the results. Some improvements had been implemented already in 2008, such as the counting at the polling stations and the posting of polling station results outside the station immediately after the count. However, it was not allowed to publish projections of the results based upon parallel counting and the publication of results took an unusually long time (see Vollan 20087). Ahead of the 2013 elections the counting and reporting system was further improved and deadlines for the publication of results were included in the Constitution8 and the Electoral Act.9 The most transparent manner would have been to publish the polling stations results at each reporting level, at least at national level, so that all parties, observers and the public at large could check that their polling station results had been correctly tabulated. The polling station results were available for the ZEC at the national level for both the National Assembly and presidential elections and should be used by the ZEC to scrutinise the results coming from the constituencies. It was, however, not explicitly stated in the law that they would be made public at central level and this was not done. Still, the reporting process was quite transparent. However, in order to check the full process one needed to check all the ward reports (approximately 1,900). 5.5.1 The Law and Regulations The Election Act and the Statutory Instrument, S.I. No 87 of 2013, regulated the reporting of results. The process up to ward level was the same for all elections, (including Section 65, 3 of the Act). Thereinafter Section 110, 3 regulated the procedure for the presidential election, and Sections 66, 67 and 68 for the National Assembly. 7 V  ollan, K (2008) Zimbabwe: The Elections On 29 March and The Later Runoff Event and By-Elections on 27 June 2008, Oslo: NORDEM, University of Oslo. 8 Article  156 “At every election and referendum, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must ensure that— […] (b) “the results of the election or referendum are announced as soon as possible after the close of the polls.” This language was also used in the law passed by presidential decree (SI 85) in June 2013. 9 S  ection 110 (3) (h) requires the presidential results to be announced not later than after polling day, provided there has been no recounts. Section 129 (3) on local elections provides no particular deadline for the parliament results other than that each step should be conducted without delay. 14 15