Ÿ In May 2018, visually-impaired disability rights activist Abraham Mateta brought a challenge to the High Court in which he sought an order for ZEC to print ballot papers in a manner accessible to visually impaired voters so that they can exercise their right to vote by secret ballot as guaranteed in section 67(3) of the Constitution. Currently visually impaired voters cast their ballot through an assistant of their choice, which removes absolute secrecy. Judge Hungwe dismissed the case with costs days before the election, without giving full reasons for the judgment. Ÿ On 23 June a grenade blasted at White City stadium in Bulawayo killing two people and injuring 49. President Emmerson Mnangagwa was holding a rally. Ÿ MDC Alliance supporters of two rival primary candidates assaulted each other in the Harare suburb of Epworth on 2 June, 2018. Ÿ In June, Electoral Court Judge Justice Neville Wamambo presided over a case in which Harare Mt Pleasant Heights residents Warship Dumba and Celime Eunice Nyakutsikwa petitioned the Electoral Court to reverse ZEC’s decision to transfer them from voting in their traditional Ward 17 in Mt Pleasant constituency in Harare to Mazowe South constituency under unclear circumstances. ZEC had not gazetted the delimitation of the constituencies to indicate the shift of boundaries as required in terms of the Electoral Act. Ÿ In July police arrested ZANU-PF supporters for allegedly threatening to burn the house of United African National Council parliamentary candidate Silver Chiripanyanga in Mashonaland East province. Members of the opposition MDC Alliance also carried out acts of intimidation and committed abuses, although at a much lower rate than did ZANU-PF supporters. This included intra-party violence. Ÿ The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) was granted an order by Masvingo High Court Judge Justice Mafusire in which it was ordered that ZANU-PF must stop using school children and school property for political rallies and must stop forcing teachers to contribute financially to political rallies and to attend. Leave to execute judgment was granted, but the Supreme Court discharged the order on appeal by ZANU-PF. The Supreme Court ruling was handed down a day before ZANU-PF’s final star rally at the National Sports Stadium in Harare, and ZANU-PF proceeded to use school buses to ferry its supporters from all over the country to the venue. Ÿ On 26 July the High Court ordered ZEC to ensure that teachers and all other civil servants, serving as electoral and polling officers or in any capacity, who were registered voters, be allowed to vote on 30 July. Justice Isaac Muzenda granted the order in favour of ARTUZ, which on 11 July filed an urgent chamber application seeking to compel ZEC to ensure that teachers deployed as polling officers were entitled to vote in the general elections. Unlike in previous elections in which a person registered in a constituency could vote at any polling station within that constituency, the 2018 harmonised elections were polling station-based in terms of section 22A (3) of the Electoral Act. Teachers posted elsewhere for work would otherwise have been unable to vote. Ÿ Electoral Court Justice Mary Zimba-Dube dismissed with costs the electoral petition lodged by MDC Alliance candidate Gift Konjana for the Chegutu West constituency seeking an invalidation of ZANU-PF candidate Dexter Nduna’s victory. ZEC had initially announced Nduna as the winner with 10 932 votes, and Konjana with 10 828 votes, but ZEC later stated 12 STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ZIMBABWE 2018