of the country's 10 provinces – more than double the number used in previous elections. Harare alone is expected to have 522 polling stations, up from 167 polling stations in the presidential elections. For the first time since independence from white minority rule in 1980, Zimbabwe will be holding elections on one day as opposed to two. Ballot counting will also take place at individual polling stations and new, translucent ballot boxes will replace wooden ones used in previous elections. Voting must take place at these polling stations: any Zimbabweans living overseas must therefore have registered to be in the electoral roll by 4 February, and must vote in Zimbabwe. Requirements such as these are not uncommon in democratic countries. Timetable and voters roll The election date was set by President Robert Mugabe on 1 February. 31 March was a public holiday to enable easier voter participation. The parliament was dissolved on 30 March, one day before the elections. The voters' roll was closed on 4 February. Nomination courts sat on 18 February to receive names of those intending to contest in the polls (results). The voters roll is the cornerstone of "one person – one vote." Attempts to verify this have been extremely difficult to carry out because of obstruction and non-co-operation from the Zimbabwe Registrar General. The Registrar General refused to release the roll in electronic form, supported by judgments from the Supreme Court, necessitating any analysis to work from a paper copy. Electoral Law is very specific in that the roll must be readily and freely available to any person, however it took two years to obtain such a copy. In February, South African president Thabo Mbeki conceded that Zimbabwe's voters roll was defective and needed to be looked at. Only a single MDC constituency managed to complete the audit ahead of the deadline for objections to the voters' roll – a month before the poll. In that constituency, 64 percent of people in one densely populated block in Harare North, are not known at the addresses given on the voters' roll. Tens of thousands of former workers on white-owned farms were deprived of their votes in the March election. The workers were expelled from their homes on farms along with their employers. Thus they did not have the necessary wad of official documents required to register as voters. In addition, many could not afford to travel