the ZEC was established under the unity government with the responsibility to manage all electoral matters in the country, a new team of commissioners led by Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe was appointed. There is serious concern that, because the ZEC chairperson is based in Namibia where he is a Supreme Court judge, ZEC is effectively being run by his deputy, Joyce Kazembe, a strong Mugabe ally who was part of the discredited electoral commissions that presided over previous elections, which were marred by violence and voter intimidation.36 Kazembe is currently the acting ZEC chairperson while Mutambanengwe is in Namibia.37 While ZEC has new commissioners, the secretariat staff is largely the same pro ZANU-PF team that worked for previous commissions. Several senior ZEC staff are either serving or retired members of the security forces drawn from the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), the army, and the police.38 ZANU-PF continues to resist calls by civil society and the MDC factions for an independent audit of ZEC staff followed by a fresh recruitment of professional, independent, and non-partisan personnel. The COPAC draft constitution and the electoral law do not exclusively assign to the electoral commission the key functions of registration of voters or the compilation of the voter rolls and registers.39 The draft constitution leaves room for other bodies, such as the Registrar General’s Office, widely viewed as partisan towards ZANU-PF, and which previously had the exclusive responsibility to register voters, issue passports and register births and deaths, to continue to play a role in the registration of voters, while ZEC is authorized to perform the following functions: (a) register voters, or supervise the registration of voters by the authority charged with that responsibility, as may be provided under the Electoral Law; and 36 “Mugabe ally effectively running election body,” The Zimbabwean, June 3, 2012, http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/news/zimbabwe/56787/mugabe-ally-effectively-running-election-body/ (accessed September 19, 2012). 37 “ZEC boss relocates to Namibia,” The Daily News, December 1, 2012. See also: “Elections: Ball start rolling,” The Sunday Mail, September 30, 2012. 38 “Elections: Ball start rolling,” The Sunday Mail. For instance, the current ZEC Chief Elections Officer, Lovemore Sekeramayi, is a former member of the President’s Office. 39 “Zimbabwe Draft Constitution,” art. 12.8(1). RACE AGAINST TIME 16