papers “signed by no fewer than five persons whose names are on the voters roll for the ward concerned.” Both the old and the new Constitution provide that the number of registered voters in each constituency should, as far as is possible, be equal, thus ensuring that no vote is of greater or less value than another in elections for the National Assembly. The number of registered voters should thus be spread evenly across the 210 constituencies, making a mean of 27 972 voters per constituency. Both Constitutions, however, allow a variation of up to 20% more or less than the average number of voters registered in each constituency.29 The permissible (though undesirable) variation of 20% has the result that the maximum and minimum number of voters in each constituency should not exceed 33 566 registered voters per constituency or be less than 22 378. The distribution of voters on the June 2013 roll is such that 23 constituencies exceed the permissible maximum and 18 are below the permissible minimum. Mbare has a voter population 154% greater than the mean (43 169 voters) and Chipinge East is has a voter population of only 46% of the mean (12 940 voters), as can be seen from Table 9. This, in effect, means that a vote in Chipinge East is worth three times that in Mbare as there are three times as many voters for the single seat in Mbare than there are in Chipinge East. In other words, if Mbare were delimited in the same numerical fashion as Chipinge East, it would yield three seats in Parliament, and not one. Although the provisions relating to rough numerical equivalents for each constituency are not in effect for the 2013 election, the position seems to contravene the right to equality under both the new and old Constitutions. Before drawing hasty conclusions on the basis these discrepancies, however, it is worth noting that the MDC-T won the seats in both Mbare and Chipinge East in the 2008 elections. Table 9: Provinces with voters’ numbers more or less than constitutional limits for delimitation Province Bulawayo Harare Manicaland Mashonaland Central Mashonaland East Mashonaland West Masvingo Matabeleland North Matabeleland South Midlands TOTAL 29 Total Voters 300,743 788,959 753,982 537,708 664,141 609,732 727,697 362,150 351,954 777,048 5,874,114 Above Maximum allowed [33566] 0 3 3 4 4 1 4 2 2 0 23 Below Minimum allowed [22378] Provincial Mean 1 6 1 0 2 0 4 1 1 2 18 Section 100J(6) of the old Constitution, section 161 of the new Constitution. 12 25,062 27,205 28,999 29,873 28,876 27,715 27,988 27,858 27,073 27,752 Provincial Variation from mean [22 972] 89.6% 97.3% 103.7% 106.8% 103.2% 99.1% 100.1% 99.6% 96.8% 99.2%