were women. After the 2018 elections, the number of elected women National Assembly members fell by three (from 29 in 2013 to 26 in 2018) and Zimbabwe fell by 13 places (from 28 to 41) on the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 2018 Index. This trend is worrisome considering that the quota system that reserves 60 seats for women in Parliament is ending in 2023. On the Election Day, due procedure was generally followed at the polling stations where ZESN had observers. The environment was peaceful. After polling, dispute arose, with the main opposition alleging collusion between ZANU-PF and the ZEC to rig the election and claiming victory in the election, prior to the announcement of the results by the Commission. Opposition supporters protested leading to the intervention of State security forces on 1 August 2018.Unfortunately, it resulted in the killing at least seven civilians, including some who were not part of the protesters, through the use of live ammunition. On 3 August, the ZEC announced the results declaring Emmerson Mnangagwa as the winner. The results fell within the projections of the ZESN Sample Based Observation (SBO), even after the later downward revision of the winner’s votes by the Commission. The MDC Alliance lodged a court application with the Constitution Court challenging the presidential results but the application was dismissed with costs. An analysis of the results reveals that total valid votes for the parliamentary elections were 4,773,171 compared to 4,774,878 for the presidential election - a difference of 43,490 votes or 0.9%. Post-election, the elected government of President Mnangagwa subsequently instituted a Commission of Inquiry currently receiving evidence on the matter that resulted in the death of civilians. ZESN notes improvements which are in line with SADC, AU, and international guidelines for credible, free, and fair elections, but also missed opportunities which did not meet these standards. The report concludes that notable improvements in law and practice were witnessed during the electoral cycle for the 2018 harmonised elections, including the relatively peaceful campaign season, opening the electoral processes to observation by a wide range of observer missions, improved quality of voter education, and provision of adequate voting materials. ZEC engagement with stakeholders, though not adequate, was also an improvement when compared with the 2013 elections. However, the integrity of the 2018 harmonised elections was undermined by an uneven pre-election playing field. Some of the actions which marred the electoral process include widespread intimidation of registrants by political actors who claimed to be able to track individual voting preferences of registrants whose registration slip serial numbers they had recorded. In addition, the partisan role of some traditional leaders who openly engaged in partisan politics, the partisan distribution of food aid, the use of State resources in campaigns, and the biased reporting by the public media and ineffective stakeholder engagement by the Commission also marred the electoral processes. The effect of the foregoing was to skew the electoral playing field. In addition, transparency of the electoral process was compromised by the manner in which ballot papers procurement, design and printing and results management, which was not open to political party agents and election observers to track at different stages. 15 | P a g e