Mashonaland East and Mashonaland West, where ZANU (PF) enjoys popular support, gained three constituencies. Harare and Matebeleland South provinces, opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) strongholds, lost two constituencies.11 The rationale provided by the Delimitation Commission was that that there has been urban-rural migration on account of the land reform programme since the last parliamentary election. This might have been the case if the practice of land reform matched the Government’s stated intentions. However, the displacement of farm laborers is equally likely to have increased, rather than decreased, the urban population. The Delimitation Commission did not cite figures from the 2004 census to support its conclusions. Indeed, it could not have done so. The 2004 census indicated that the population of the city of Harare had increased by 500,000. The delimitation was done on the hypothesis that it had declined by 50,00012. b)Limiting Opposition Votes During the build up to the 2000 election, the Government introduced new legislation, prohibiting dual citizenship. The Registrar-General, who has openly acknowledged his support for ZANU (PF), interpreted the legislation in an egregious manner. He determined that any person who might be entitled to citizenship of another country would be deemed to possess such citizenship until they proved otherwise. On this basis, the names of such persons were automatically removed from the voters role. The persons affected were predominantly farm labourers, many of Malawian decent, and Whites 13 . Both groups were perceived as supporting the opposition in the 2000 elections. Further reduction of opposition votes has been achieved through legislation restricting postal votes. A considerable number of Zimbabwean citizens are living outside Zimbabwe. This fact is accepted by the Zimbabwean Government, which itself refers to the group as “Zimbabweans in the Diaspora”. Some have left on account of political violence and others because of difficult economic conditions. The largest concentrations of expatriate Zimbabweans are in South Africa and England. Estimates of the number vary, but is generally thought to be about three million people. Most of these people would have been eligible as voters and a large proportion are urban-based, well-educated and likely MDC supporters. In any event, having been compelled to leave Zimbabwe for whatever reason, their sympathies are not likely to lie with the ruling party. The new electoral provisions deny the postal vote to all these people. Postal voting is restricted to those away or who may be away from their constituencies owing to military and diplomatic duties or because they are involved in the conduct of the elections. The army and diplomats (the latter are appointed by Mugabe) comprise predominantly ZANU 11 12 Reuters 20 December 2004 and The Herald 21 December 2004. See “New constituencies clear evidence Mugabe already rigging election: MDC” Zimonline 22 December 2004. “The 2002 Presidential Elections and Civic Organizations in Zimbabwe – A Report for the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa” May 2002 (the Netherlands Report p.13) 13 7