47.3. A voter can, and voters did opt in some instances not to vote in all the
electoral races that were underway on the 30th of July 2018. For instance, in
ward 6 Chegutu Municipality at Pfupajena High School polling station, the
incorrect ballot for the local authority election was delivered and voters, when
given the option to wait for the correct ballot to be delivered, indicated that they
wanted to vote in the absence of the local authority ballot and were allowed to
cast their ballots for the electoral race(s) that had correct ballots at the polling
station.
47.4. Further, in any general election there are electoral races that are
uncontested. For instance, in the 2018 general election there were 47 local
authority wards that were uncontested. No ballots are issued in respect of those
electoral races on polling day.
47.5. Further, the lack of a preferred candidate may influence which electoral races
voters will participate in. In the 2018 general election, the applicant’s political
party did not field any candidates for two House of Assembly seats namely Insiza
North and Chiredzi North House of Assembly constituencies. It is possible that in
those constituencies voters that cast votes in favour of the applicant for the
presidential election may have opted not to vote in the House of Assembly
election because of absence of an MDC-Alliance candidate. This issue is more
widespread when one considers that most political parties, except for ZANU PF
and the MDC-Alliance, did not field candidates in most of the electoral races that
were underway on the 30th of July 2018. Despite there being no candidates
fielded by these political parties in most of the elections for the House of
Select target paragraph3
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