land in a timely manner, have been cited as some of the reasons for abandoning housing cooperatives. As a result the executive has largely remained influential to population growth and migration. Information about growth patterns and migrations is vital to political parties’ campaign strategies, hence such information should always be accessible to all electoral contestants. 6. Timing of the next delimitation exercise Although the 2018 elections are fast approaching, at the moment, there is no clarity on timing of the next delimitation processes. The Constitution only states that delimitation must be carried out once every ten years. There appears to be no obligation for ZEC to take into consideration the last delimitation exercise in computing the ten-year period. The transitional provisions in the Constitution do not address the issues of delimitation for the purpose of the first elections. In the event that the last delimitation exercise is taken into consideration, then this process must be conducted in 2018. It is highly unlikely that the delimitation process will be completed in time for the report and maps to be adopted for use in the 2018 elections, as the delimitation process must be completed six months before any election. Another challenge will be availability of the new maps and boundaries to all stakeholders including civil society organisations in time for adequate voter education. Another problem presented by timing the next delimitation exercise based on the last exercise in 2008, is that the population information that will be used will be from the 2012 Census, which will be very outdated. It is good practice to rely on statistics from a recent census for the delimitation process to produce accurate allocation of voters to certain voting areas. The next census is only due in 2022 according to the Census and Statistics Act.37 Any delimitation exercise that is carried out before the next census will lead to all other processes relying on census reports that will be more than four years old unless the census and delimitation timelines are harmonised. This can only 37 [Chapter 10:29] Section 12(1)provides that census is only conducted every ten years. 17 | P a g e