HARARE, July 3 (Xinhua) -- About 7,200 people have applied for postal voting in the July 30 elections, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Tuesday.

ZEC chairperson Priscilla Chigumba said in a statement that applications for postal voting had closed on June 28.

According to the law, postal voting is only available to individuals who will be outside Zimbabwe on government business on the polling day and their spouses.

It is also only open to such people who apply to do so within 14 days after the sitting of the nomination court.

The successful applicants will be furnished with the voting material in advance and they will be required to send their votes in sealed packets to the Chief Elections Officer at ZEC at least 14 days before the actual date of the poll.

Once received, the Chief Elections Officer will then distribute the postal votes to their respective constituencies in their sealed envelopes within seven days of the date of the actual poll.

The postal votes are further dispatched to their respective wards centers before the actual poll. They are only opened for counting at the ward center at the time of counting the votes for the ordinary poll.

Chigumba said the number of applications received did not mean that everyone interested in using the facility would be able to do so since some of them may not be on the voters' roll.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will square off with 22 other candidates in the presidential election, including his biggest rival Nelson Chamisa of the opposition MDC Alliance.