8.4. Redirected Voters There were cases of people who were redirected having turned up at the wrong polling stations intending to vote. Some voters who reside in the constituency could not vote as they had transferred from other constituencies, for example Mutoko East but had not notified ZEC so that they could be registered to vote in Mutoko North while others were registered voters in Harare. There is therefore need for voter education to emphasise the need for voters to change their registration accordingly once they change places of residents, particularly with the use of the polling station based voting system. 8.5. Polling Procedures and Conduct of ZEC Polling Staff ZESN observer reports revealed that all polling stations successfully completed setup and opening procedures by 7am. In addition, all the required voting materials such as ballot boxes, ballot papers, ZEC official stamp, indelible ink, and the voters’ roll were available at the time of opening. All polling stations were adequately manned with an average of seven polling officials, 50% of them being female in most cases. 8.6. Women and Special Needs Groups The participation of and respect of the rights of women and special needs groups are key indicators of democracy where citizens who may be vulnerable enjoy privileged treatment in electoral processes. The majority of voters in the Mutoko North by-election were women. In relation to election administration, there were attempts by ZEC to achieve gender balance as out of the average seven polling officers present at all polling stations, three of more were women in most cases. Commendably, pregnant and nursing mothers were given preference such that they would vote ahead of anyone else without having to stand in queues for long. Further, at all polling stations, this privilege was also extended to other special needs groups, including people with disabilities. ZESN commends ZEC for efforts to have a separate polling booth at every polling station in Mutoko North that facilitated voting by PWDs. 19