two parliamentary seats that are specifically reserved for the Diaspora. In failing to cater for its significant Diaspora population, Zimbabwe is therefore lagging behind what is becoming regional best practice to ensure maximum participation of its citizens in national processes wherever they may be based. • Responsibility for Voter Registration: One of the long-running contentious issues is the fact that the registration of voters and compilation of the voters roll is shared between the Commission and the Registrar General of Voters Office. It is important that voter registration be wholly integrated in a single office and that this should ideally be the Commission, which has responsibility for the conduct of elections. It is responsible for maintaining, distributing and using the voters roll and so surely it must have the sole responsibility to create it, especially if a new voter registration exercise is going to take place. Not only will this be more efficient, it will also promote more accountability on the part of the Commission. At present, each party is likely to shift blame to the other for any shortcomings, thereby diluting accountability. • An analogous example where divided roles in the same responsibility can be found in the area of financial services, where traditionally banks were given licences by the Ministry of Finance whereas bank supervision was the responsibility of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. This created problems because of the ridiculous situation that meant the supervisor and lender of last resort had no control over the licensing of banks. This created confusion, inconsistency and mediocrity hence the changes that were eventually made to ensure the licensing of banks came under the single roof of the RBZ. • Likewise, it makes sense to integrate the registration and maintenance of the voters’ roll under the single roof of the Commission. It is recommended that the Commission be given sole responsibility for registration of voters and all matters concerning the voters roll. IV POLLING STATION Polling-Station Based Voters Rolls BASED VOTERS 7