short stature. This was however not throughout the country. Voter education material was also produced in braille and distributed throughout the country. ZEC campaigns, including media campaigns, referred to people with disabilities. Representation in Governance There was limited inclusion of PWDs in decision making both on issues that affect PWDs specifically and on issues that affect the nation generally. Although two Senators were elected to represent persons with disabilities, Senators Whatson Khupe and Rejoice Timire, Parliament rarely addressed problems especially affecting persons with disabilities. Parliament does not provide specific line items for persons with disabilities in the various social service ministry budgets. The two Senators do not have a budget to reach out to their constituency. These two do not have allocations on the Constituency Development Fund because that fund is reserved for Members of the House of Assembly and the constituencies they represent, not for Senators. There was significant improvement towards inclusivity. There were minimal legal or administrative safeguards to allow participation in the electoral processes by persons with disabilities. During the actual polling, however, ZEC gave preference to PWDs in voting queues. People with visual impairments were assisted by assistants of their choice and not by police officers or polling officers. ZESN found that 97% of observed polling stations made adequate accommodations for persons with disabilities, the elderly, and pregnant or nursing women. Polling officials permitted persons who requested assistance, including blind, illiterate, and elderly persons, to have an individual with them to mark their ballots as the electoral law requires. 45% of polling stations had at least 26 assisted voters, according to ZESN. There were also no structures from the grassroots that extend to the Senators. The Disabled Persons Act [Chapter 17:01] establishes the National Disability Board. Organisations in disability work have described the Board as a tool that does not work. For the most part, the Board was under resourced. According to the Act, the Board should be serviced by a fullyfledged Secretariat, headed by a Director of Disability Affairs. However, since 1994 the Board has no dedicated secretariat and the staff in the Department of Social Welfare work on other responsibilities to the detriment and neglect of disability issues. The Act creates the Office of the Director for Disabled Persons’ Affairs whose duties include liaising with ministries and local authorities to ensure the implementation of the policies and measures formulated by the National Disability Board, and co-ordinating the activities of organisations which are involved in working with people with disabilities. The Office of Director had not been filled and was only advertised in April 2018. There is also the Special Advisor to the President on Disability Issues, currently Senator Joshua Malinga, who is accountable only to the President. However, no braille ballot papers were availed for the visually impaired to vote in secret. The High Court threw out a case in which a visually impaired voter, Abraham Mateta, sought an order to compel ZEC to print braille ballot papers, and/or provide other methods of voting that allowed the visually impaired to vote in secret and unassisted. “What everyone would really like is to vote unassisted, including people with visual impairments. Their desire is to vote in secret” - NASCOH Many eligible PWDs did not vote. Studies by NASCOH showed that a significant number of people did not register to vote for fear of violence. NASCOH helped provide for handicapped accessibility at polling stations throughout Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, and Mutare. NASCOH also deployed over 125 PWDs to be election observers, who were trained by both NASCOH and ZESN. 560 people with disabilities were trained by NASCOH on the BVR system, and these in turn reached out to 5,600 PWDs, primarily through social media. With both the National Disability Board and the Senators, there was incapacity that is structural. There was discomfort over the fact that disability issues are under the Ministry of Social Welfare. 47 STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ZIMBABWE 2018