While the pre-election environment was relatively peaceful and non-violent, except for the outstanding explosion at a ZANU-PF rally at White City Sports Stadium in Bulawayo. Nevertheless, it was tainted by incidents of intimidation, mostly by alleged ZANU-PF supporters; abuse of State resources in campaigns by ZANU-PF; the partisan role of traditional leaders in favour of ZANU-PF; politicisation of food aid; hate speech by candidates and their supporters; and the destruction of rival’s campaign material. Additionally, several contentious issues were raised ahead of the election, including concerns around ballot paper printing, design, storage, and transmission. Although ZEC invited stakeholders to witness ballot paper printing, the process failed to provide greater clarity as the observers were neither permitted to ask questions about the process nor come close to the printing press. Furthermore, ZEC failed to communicate effectively with stakeholders on key electoral processes such as postal voting. The media demonstrated an improved understanding of electoral issues. However, there was evidence to suggest that the media was still polarised with regards to coverage of electoral issues, despite legal and ethical obligations aimed at ensuring impartiality and balanced coverage of campaigns, parties, and candidates. There was bias in favour of the incumbent while opposition and smaller parties, as well as women, got far less coverage. Over six weeks of the election period, ZANU-PF got 52% coverage while the MDC Alliance got 19%. Whereas Emmerson Mnangagwa got 57% coverage, Nelson Chamisa got 15%. ZANU-PF got 76% coverage in State-run newspapers and 48% on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), while the MDC Alliance got 17% and 6% respectively. Furthermore, while the pre-election environment witnessed no violations of rights for media personnel, seven cases were recorded after polling, between 1 and 3 August. Zimbabwe is a state party to regional and international instruments that recognise the need for the removal of barriers to women participation in politics. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. While Zimbabwe signed these frameworks, it has yet to ratify and domesticate them. The Constitution of Zimbabwe also provides for measures to ensure gender equality, including in terms of participation in electoral processes and representation in governance. However, the 2018 elections did not change the trend of the low representation of women in the electoral process. None of the contesting political parties was close to attaining 50/50 representation between male and female candidates. Even the main contesting parties; ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance, did not achieve even 10 % women representation. In response to calls by women organisations, ZEC indicated that it was beyond its mandate to reject political party lists that did not ensure equality between sexes. The underrepresentation of women was further compounded by the toxic and misogynistic political environment leading to the election. It was not uncommon for women to be called derogatory names as they participated in the electoral processes and social media abuses targeted at women were rife. Not surprisingly, only 237 out of 1648 candidates for National Assembly elections were female and only four out of 23 presidential election candidates 14 | P a g e