Protecting, Promoting and Enforcing Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom Protection of Human Rights Activities [continued] visit report, the ZHRC exhorted the Ministry of Health and Child Care to employ other methods of debt collection without resorting to the inhuman acts of detaining mothers and their newly born and innocent babies. 6.4 Election Monitoring The Constitution under Section 67 guarantees political rights to the citizenry. This function can be realized by the ZHRC through monitoring and reporting on how citizens enjoy and exercise their right to free, fair and regular elections for any elective public office established in terms of the Constitution or any other law. In line with such a provision, ZHRC took part in observing the By-Elections in twenty constituencies around the country in 2015. During these elections, ZHRC delegates managed to have an assessment of preelection environment, the elections and the post-election situation in the constituencies. The general outcome of the observation has been that the election environment was peaceful in almost all constituencies observed, except for Hurungwe West Constituency which had reports of pre-election human rights violations. In most areas visited by the ZHRC, voting days were calm and peaceful for eligible voters to exercise their right to vote freely. The By-Elections had a generally low turn-out of voters as compared to the previously held elections in those areas. In terms of observing the election procedures, there were no reports of any inconsistences or breach of such. All polling stations visited by ZHRC had essential election materials. Also, the setup in the voting rooms was in a way that ensures the secrecy of the ballot. Even the voting booths were set up in a manner that allowed voters to mark their ballot papers in secret. The polling stations opened on time at 7 am and closed their doors by 7pm as there were no more voters coming. The ZHRC, however, noted that a considerably high number of voters were turned away at most polling stations due to the following reasons: being unregistered; attempting to vote in the wrong wards; being registered in other wards where one used to live prior to being resettled or relocating; and use of identification documents which were defaced and not originals and names not appearing on the voters' roll. The ZHRC commended ZEC for the satisfactory piloting of the polling station based voters roll. The ZHRC highlighted that if adequate measures are put in place, the polling station based roll is a good system which eliminates multiple voting and makes voting quicker as the voters' roll is not as bulky as that found in the ward based system. Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Annual Report 2015 21