ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK PROMOTING DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE Report on the Harmonised 30 July 2018 Elections ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Report on the Harmonised 30 July 2018 Elections ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Table of Contents 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 08 2 ABOUT ZESN 13 3 POLITICAL BACKGROUND 14 4 LEGAL FRAMEWORK 15 4.1 Universal and Regional Principles and Commitments 15 4.2 The Constitution 15 4.3 Electoral Act 15 4.4 Electoral System 16 4.5 Code of Conduct 16 4.6 Electoral Court Establishment 17 4.7 Presidential Petition 17 4.8 Legislative Developments 17 4.9 Some Legislative Gaps - Electoral Reform 17 4.10De-Duplication 18 4.11Voters Registration 19 4.12Election Timetable 19 4.13Delimitation 19 5 ELECTION ADMINISTRATION 20 5.1 Structure, Composition and Appointment 20 5.2 Appointment of new ZEC Chairperson 20 5.3 Structure of the Secretariat 20 5.4 Functions of the ZEC 20 5.5 Independence of ZEC 21 5.6 Observers in the 2018 Harmonized Elections 22 5.7 Observers' Accreditation 22 5.8 Postal Voting 23 6 VOTER REGISTRATION 24 6.1 Qualifications for Registration 24 6.2 The Right to Vote 24 6.3 Non- Compliance with Right to Vote 25 6.4 Compliance with the Right to Vote 25 6.5 Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) 25 6.6 Mop-Up Voter Registration Exercise 26 6.7 Inspection of the Voters' Roll 26 6.8 De-duplication Process 27 6.9 Voters' Roll 28 7 ANALYSIS OF THE FINAL VOTERS' ROLL 30 7.1 Distribution of Registered Voters by Age 30 7.2 Duplicates Cases in the Final Voters' Roll 31 7.3 Comparison of the Final Voters' roll with ZIMSTAT Census Data and Projections 31 8 VOTER EDUCATION 35 8.1 ZEC Voter Education 35 9 POLITICAL PARTIES 37 9.1 Political Parties Primary Elections 37 9.2 Nomination Court Proceedings 37 2 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 10 PRE-ELECTION ENVIRONMENT AND ELECTION CAMPAIGNS 41 10.1Pre-Election Environment 41 10.2Election Campaigns 43 10.3Funding of Political Parties 44 11 CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN THE 2018 HARMONIZED ELECTIONS 46 11.1CSOs Election Situation Room 47 12 MEDIA AND ELECTIONS 49 12.1Legal Framework governing the conduct of actors in the media industry 49 12.2Media Environment 50 12.3Electoral Coverage 50 12.4Online Media 51 13 WOMEN AND ELECTIONS 52 14 PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 54 15 ELECTION DAY AND POST-ELECTION PERIOD 55 16 ZESN’S SAMPLE BASED OBSERVATION RESULTS 63 17 POST-ELECTION ENVIRONMENT 64 18 RESULTS 65 19 RECOMMENDATIONS 66 20 CONCLUSION 71 ANNEX 1: INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION 72 3 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Tables 1 Voter registration by Sex and Province 29 2 Distribution of registered voters by age and sex 30 3 Distribution of registered voters by Urban, Rural location 31 4 Summary of eligible versus actual registered voters 31 5 Distribution of voters by province (Provisional Voters' Roll versus Final Voters' Roll 33 6 Distribution of voters by province and sex (Final Voters' Roll versus Provisional Voters' Roll) 34 7 List of candidates for 2018 Elections 39 8 Presidential Candidates for 2008 and 2013 harmonised elections 39 9 Candidates fielded by main political parties 40 10 Violations against the media 50 11 National Assembly results 59 12 National Assembly Seats by province: 2013 – 2018 comparison 59 13 Polling Stations with identical results 61 14 Number of proportional Representation Seat per Party 62 15 Elected Chiefs in Senate 62 16 ZESN SBO estimates versus ZEC official results for the 2018 Presidential election 63 17 Distribution of National Assembly Constituencies (Direct Election) by political parties 65 18 Women's Quota seat by political party 65 19 Distribution of Seats in Senate 65 20 ZESN Recommendations 66 Figures 1 Numbers of urban registrants and the census population 32 2 Numbers of rural registrants and census population 32 3 Comparison of final voters' roll population with census data 2012 and 2018 33 4 Presence of party agents at Nomination Court by political parties 38 5 Numbers of candidates for National Assembly election by province 40 6 An example of the SMS sent to registered voters by ZANU-PF 44 7 Media coverage of different political parties 50 8 Media coverage between Men and Women 51 9 Women candidates in the 2018 Presidential elections 52 10 Comparison between male and female candidates by political parties for 2018 elections 53 11 Male and female National Assembly candidates by province 55 12 Percentages of polling station opening times by province 13 Accessibility of polling station for People with Disabilities was catered for 56 14 Percentages of Presiding Officers by sex at polling stations 56 15 Presence of Agents by political parties at polling stations 56 16 Distribution of presence of agents by province 57 17 Voters turned away 58 18 Distribution of Assisted Voters by Sex 58 19 Distribution of assisted voters by province 58 20 Distribution of National Assembly Seats after the 2018 elections 60 21 Distribution of National Assembly Seats after 2013 elections 60 22 Number of seats in the National Assembly by sex 65 4 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Acronyms ACDEG African Charter on Elections, Democracy, and Governance ACHPR African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights AFIS Automated Fingerprint Identification System AIPPA Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act APA Alliance for the Peoples' Agenda AU EOM African Union Election Observation Mission AU African Union BPRA Bulawayo Progressive Residents' Association BVR Bio-metric Voters' Registration CAMERA Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents Association CEO Chief Election Officer CCJP Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women CHITREST Chitungwiza Residents Trust CODE Coalition of Democrats COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa CSOs Civil Society Organisations CSU Counselling Services Unit CVE Civic and Voter Education ECF-SADC Electoral Commissions Forum of Southern African Development Community countries EFZ Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe EMB Electoral Management Body EOM Elections Observation Mission ERC Election Resource Centre ESN-SA Election Support Network of Southern Africa ESR Election Situation Room EU EOM European Union Election Observation Mission EU European Union FRELIMO Mozambique Liberation Front FVR Final Voters' roll GC Gender Commission GNDEM Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors GoZ Government of Zimbabwe IC Inspection Centre ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ID Identification Document IEC Information, Education and Communication IMBISA Inter Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union IRI International Republican Institute JSC Judicial Services Commission LTOs Long Term Observers MDC-T Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai MISA Media Institute of Southern Africa MP Member of Parliament MPLA People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola MPLC Multi-party Liaison Committee 5 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe MURRA Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance NAM Non-Aligned Movement NANGO National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations NASCOH National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped NAYO National Association of Youth Organisations NCC National Council of Chiefs NDI National Democratic Institute NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NPA National Prosecuting Authority NPF National Patriotic Front NPRC National Peace and Reconciliation Commission OAC Observers Accreditation Committee OAU Organisation of African Unity PAP Pan African Parliament POSA Public Order and Security Act POTRAZ Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe PRC Peoples Rainbow Coalition PWDs People with Disabilities RGV Registrar General of Voters SADC EOM Southern African Development Community Elections Observation Mission SADC Southern African Development Community SADC-ESN Southern African Development Community Election Support Network SAPES Trust Southern African Political Economy Series Trust SBO Sample Based Observation SBOs Sample Based Observers SMS Short Messaging Service SPB State Procurement Board STOs Short Term Observers UDACIZA Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UMRRT United Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Trust UN United Nations USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data WCoZ Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe YETT Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust ZANU-PF Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front ZAPU Zimbabwe African People's Union ZBA Zimbabwe Broadcasting Authority ZBC Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation ZCC Zimbabwe Council of Churches ZEC Zimbabwe Electoral Commission ZESN Zimbabwe Election Support Network ZHRC Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission ZIEOM Zimbabwe International Election Observation Mission ZIMSTAT Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency ZLHR Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights ZMC Zimbabwe Media Commission ZPP Zimbabwe Peace Project ZRP Zimbabwe Republic Police 6 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Foreword The Zimbabwe Election Support