existing voters’ rolls. ZESN urges the Commission to make available voters’ rolls in a format that can be analysed as this facilitates independent audit of the voters’ rolls. 7. ELECTION CAMPAIGNS ZESN observed that campaigns for the NCA party were significantly affected by limited resources while ZANU-PF campaigns were robust owing to the party and candidates’ access to significantly larger amounts of resources. This contributed to the creation of an uneven playing field. Consequently, the by-election was poorly contested. The absence of a genuine contest in this by election is, among other things, evident in the limited coverage by media outlets of electoral processes that led to this by election. The need to review the current system of regulating party finances cannot be over emphasised. There is need for sustained discussion among electoral stakeholders on the appropriate mechanisms for political party financing that can help new entrants in politics to establish themselves. The new system should require appropriate disclosure, limits on expenditure and effective monitoring of party campaign finance. Democracy only thrives when the playing field, for political actors and political parties, is level and when elections are genuinely contested. Such a discussion is timely and relevant in light of the numerous challenges that independent candidates and smaller political parties continue to face when they try to participate in political processes. The Constitution and the Political Parties (Finance) Act, as amended, provides for state funding of political parties. The 1997 Amendments to the Act set the threshold of political parties that could receive state funding to political parties that have received 5% of votes cast in the previous general election. Subsequent amendments to the same Act state that by-election results must be used to re-calculate the allocation for the parties. This adjustment should be made annually. Unfortunately votes cast for independent candidates are disregarded. 8. GENDER EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 8.1. Gender Equality and Special Needs Groups Active participation of women, youth, civil society organisations and marginalised groups in the electoral process constitutes a critical element for the strengthening of democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe. ZESN commends the compilation of data on voters that is disaggregated by age and gender. ZESN, however, recommends that these statistics be shared with relevant stakeholders including political parties and civil society to aid their programming especially in the promotion of people living with disabilities and women’s participation in elections. ZESN encourages ZEC to ensure that such data is made available via public platforms such as the ZEC website. 11 | P a g e