to  register,  also  serves  to  undermine  all  citizens’  access  to  information.  This  requirement  for  only   ZEC  approved  organisations  to  undertake  voter  education  definitely  undermined  the  reach  of  such   education  in  the  early  phases.         However,  it  is  also  noted  that  as  BVR  has  progressed,  ZEC  has  regularly  called  meetings  with   registered  civic  groups,  and  has  been  helpful  in  sharing  information.  ZEC  has  also,  in  these   meetings,  acknowledged  the  important  role  being  played  by  civics  in  trying  to  bring  voters  into  the   BVR  process.  Civics  rose  to  the  challenge,  and  can  take  the  credit  for  ensuring  that  many  more   voters  came  forward  to  register  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case.  This  was  particularly  true  in   urban  centres,  and  also  in  some  rural  areas  of  Matabeleland  North  and  South.  ZESN  also  did  an   excellent  job  in  monitoring  the  process  in  all  wards  around  the  country  and  producing  reports  on   their  findings.  Youth  organisations  encouraged  the  youth  vote  by  allowing  free  entry  at  concerts  to   those  who  had  a  registration  slip  to  show.  This  latter  approach  has  been  criticized  in  a  recent  article   on  the  dangers  and  prevalence  of  different  forms  of  vote  (and  voter)  buying  in  Zimbabwe:     Finally,  the  culture  of  gift  giving  for  election-­‐related  activities  is  entrenching  itself,  worse   with  the  recent  adoption  by  civil  society  groups  of  the  material  inducement  phenomenon   for  people  to  register  to  vote.  The  groups  which  give  people  perfumes,  tickets  to  music   shows  and  transport  to  registration  centres  have  also  been  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  turnout   buying  (a  variant  of  the  broad  vote  buying)  and  have  regrettably  lost  moral  high  ground  to   criticise  political  parties  from  doing  the  same  practice,  instead  this  has  entrenched  the  voter   inducement  to  the  detriment  of  democratic  practice.73     The  main  point  of  Ncube’s  article  is  to  detail  the  ways  in  which  ZANU  PF,  through  allegedly  already   embedding  2,000  commissars  in  all  the  wards  of  the  nation,  has  laid  the  groundwork  for  various   coercive  ways  of  winning  the  vote.  The  long-­‐standing  pattern  of  abusing  government  inputs  to   individuals  in  rural  areas  and  conflating  the  ruling  party  with  the  government  has  already  been   alluded  to  in  this  report.  The  patronage  principle  works  hand  in  hand  with  more  coercive   approaches,  and  we  need  to  remain  vigilant  to  both.  Civics  using  material  incentives  to  encourage   people  to  register  may  seem  innocuous  compared  to  actual  vote  buying,  but  this  point  is  still  one   that  civics  should  conduct  some  introspection  around:  should  we  offer  any  kind  of  experiential  or   material  inducements  to  get  people  either  to  register  or  vote,  or  is  this  not  succumbing  to  behavior   we  have  wished  to  condemn  in  others?       ZANU  PF  and  voter  education  –  and  abuses     It  was  observed  that  while  ZEC  was  slow  to  get  information  out  into  the  field  about  BVR,  ZANU  PF   was  not.  In  Matabeleland,  it  was  our  observation  that  ZANU  PF  was  highly  visible,  calling  meetings   of  their  supporters  to  ensure  that  they  had  the  information  to  go  and  register,  with  the  right  dates   and  places  to  do  so.  Unfortunately,  it  was  also  our  observation,  and  that  of  others,  that  ZANU  PF   was  deliberately  misinforming  rural  civilians  in  particular,  about  BVR.  People  were  routinely  told   that  the  new  process  would  include  finger-­‐printing  and  scanning  of  people’s  faces,  so  that  there   would  no  longer  be  any  anonymity  about  the  vote:  ZANU  PF  would  know  whether  or  not  a   particular  voter  had  voted  for  them  or  not.  This  was  reported  to  our  observers  in  Lupane  and                                                                                                               73  Ncube,  Batsani:  How  the  2018  polls  will  be  lost  or  won,  The  Zimbabwe  Independent,  9  February  2018.   https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2018/02/09/2018-­‐polls-­‐will-­‐lost-­‐won/.       21