improve the turnout of voters during the voter registration exercises, inspection and during the actual polling. ZESN commends the Commission for putting in place mechanisms to ensure that potential voters who did not participate in the initial voter registration exercise were still able to vote if their names were in the 2013 voters’ roll. ZESN however reiterates its call for the Commission to ensure that, by the date of by-elections or general elections, voters’ roll to be used comply with accepted voter registration principles. ZESN urges the Commission to ensure that a single, consolidated, comprehensive, inclusive, complete and accurate voters’ roll for each Constituency is available in reasonable time before the election date. The right of all adult and eligible citizens to vote in elections is one of the cornerstones of democracy. Effective voter registration exercises, and the availability of an up to date voters’ rolls is key to sustaining electoral democracy. o Provision of the Voters’ Roll According to Section 21 (1) of the Electoral Act, the Commission shall within a reasonable period of time provide any person who requests the voters’ roll, and who pays the prescribed fee, with a copy of any ward or constituency voters’ roll, either in printed or in electronic form as the person may request. The Electoral law also provides for provision of the voters’ roll upon payment of a prescribed fee to every political party that intends to contest the election, and to any accredited observer who requests it, one copy of every voters’ roll to be used in the election, either in printed or in electronic form as the party or observer may request. The provision of the voters’ roll to stakeholders has been an issue of contention in previous elections, raising questions on its integrity and credibility. Contesting political parties reported that they received electronic copies of the voters’ rolls on 15 December 2015, four days before polling day. This does not allow for contesting political parties time to assess if the voters roll meet acceptable standards such as accuracy, currency, comprehensives, among others. 7. ELECTION CAMPAIGNS The continued elections boycott by the MDC formations means that ZANU PF was the only contesting party which is currently benefiting from funding for political parties from Treasury as provided for in Section 3 (3) of the Political Parties Finances Act[Chapter 2:11]. This contributed to the creation of an uneven playing field as other parties could not compete on an equal footing resulting in the by-election being poorly contested as contesting parties were not able to mount effective election campaigns. The need to review the current system of regulating party finances cannot be over emphasised. There is need for sustained discussion among electoral stakeholders on the appropriate mechanisms for political party financing that can help new entrants in politics to establish themselves. The new system should require appropriate disclosure, limits on expenditure and effective monitoring of party campaign finances. Democracy only thrives when the playing field, for political actors and political parties, is level and when elections are genuinely contested. Such a discussion is timely and relevant in light of the numerous 13 | P a g e