ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 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. 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. 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 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%. 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 of 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 under representation 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 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 InterParliamentary Union's (IPU) 2018 Index. This trend is worrisome considering that the quota system that reserves 60 seats for women in Parliament is ending in 2023. 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 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 11 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN