specific circumstances of the GNU, one must consider also that ministries are allocated so that there is fair and equitable representation of all the main political parties. In addition to the nominee of the President’s Office, the other nominees are from Ministries that are controlled by one political party (ZANU PF) – except that the Ministry of Home Affairs controlling immigration is currently shared between ZANU PF and the MDC-T. This domination by one party could mean that the OAC will be overly dominated by representatives of one political party, a reality that in the circumstances of Zimbabwean politics cannot be overlooked. A suggestion would be to expand the OAC, to include more non-political appointees to include civil society and members of the professions. • Persons who may apply for accreditation include both local and foreign observers although there is also a facility for direct invitations by the Minister (Justice), the Commission and the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Since the Ministries and the Commission are represented in the OAC it is likely that their invitees will face little if any problems in the process of accreditation. The main challenge will be for those who apply under Section 40H (a) and (b). Indeed, Section 40I (4) provides that the Foreign Affairs Minister may make objection to the accreditation of a “foreign individual or eminent person” and states that the OAC “shall pay due regard to the objection” in its decision-making process. The fact that a person with a nominee on the OAC has a right of objection could compromise the impartiality of the OAC in respect of the applicant so a suggestion here is that the Foreign Affairs Minister’s nominee should recuse himself from the decision-making process in such circumstances. • It is important to note that this clause decentralises the power to invite applications so that it is no longer left to the Minister of Justice to perform this role. Besides the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the Commission itself has the power to invite applications. Indeed, this must be interpreted to mean that any other person, even those who have not been directly invited, are entitled to make applications to the Commission. • Section 40I (5) ensures that the Commission is the ultimate decision-making body in respect of 22