ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe working in Zimbabwe for foreign media houses; US$10 for Zimbabwean local media practitioners accredited with the Zimbabwe Media Council (ZMC); US$20 for media practitioners from the continent of Africa. The African Union and SADC EOMs were exempted from paying accreditation fees. 5.8 Postal Voting According to Section 72 0f the Electoral Act, postal voting is a process where a voter who is based outside the country on government business, or their spouse or a person on duty as a member of a disciplined force or an electoral officer, is unable to vote at a polling station in their constituency and requests to vote earlier. The postal voting procedure as set out in the Act states that anyone who requires to vote by post should apply to the ZEC and, once approved, the Commission would post the ballot papers to the said person who would vote in secret and post the ballot papers back to ZEC. While ZESN recognises and commends the effort of Commission in accrediting domestic observer groups which empowered CSOs to execute their functions as established in the guidelines, as such contributing to transparency and overall acceptance of the elections, the Network was concerned with the costs and process of accreditation. Domestic observers were required to pay US$10 each for accreditation fees and to physically present themselves at the ZEC provincial accreditation centres for the process. Transport and, in some instances, accommodation costs were incurred making the costs for the accreditation exorbitant thus stifling efforts to comprehensively deploy domestic observers at all polling stations. It is recommended that ZEC review the administrative and financial hurdles that impeded the accreditation of observers. As a possibility, the OAC could be decentralised or the requirement for observers to physically present themselves at accreditation centres could be removed. Over 7 200 people, the majority of them diplomats, applied for postal voting for the July 30 elections22. Suspicions arose during the postal voting process as widespread allegations of police officers being required to vote in front of their superiors and in what appeared as a polling station within the cantonment areas. Bulawayo was cited as one of the provinces where such incidents were reported by observers from ZESN and other CSOs. ZEC at the time had not indicated, on the electoral calendar, specific dates when postal voting would be conducted. 22 https://www.herald.co.zw/7-200-apply-for-postal-voting/ 23 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN