ZEC saying that printing was complete, ballot papers were used at police stations for postal ballots. There also were no electoral officials and polling agents and election observers in violation of the Constitution. When ZEC was challenged over the absence of electoral officials at Ross police camp in Bulawayo, ZEC’s Acting Chief Elections Officer Mr. Silaigwana responded: “There is nothing wrong with the absence of ZEC there because remember let us say someone is in Darfur on peace keeping mission or someone is at the embassy in the United States, do you think ZEC can be in all those places?21 Although ZEC later confirmed that postal voting did take place at Ross Camp, it failed to explain why there were no officials at Ross Camp. It was later clarified by ZEC that what had happened was that postal voting had occurred and some police officers had chosen to post their ballots through their respective police station which is Ross Camp while others posted on their own but no illegalities had occurred as everything was done as prescribed under Section 72 of the Electoral Act and these ballots were to be received by ZEC by the 16th of July 2018 i.e. 14 days before actual polling. A summary of human rights violations – the pre-electoral environment Human rights violations during this period emanated directly and indirectly from; inter and intra party violence; ZANU PF and MDC-Alliance primary elections and from the general the administration of elections. Table 1 below summarises cases of human rights violations that were documented in the pre- electoral period. Table 1: Cases of human rights violation for the period April to June 2018 Nature of violation April May Assault 6 7 Abduction - - June 16 July Total 24 53 4 4 21 The Herald, Postal voting underway: ZEC, 13 July 2018,https://www.herald.co.zw/postal-votingunderway-zec/ 25