ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 11. Civil Society Participation in the 2018 Harmonized Elections The existence and participation of various vibrant and divergent CSOs in the electoral process of a country is critical in the enhancement and realisation of democracy. The roles of CSOs may include carrying out CVE activities, oversight role on electoral processes, advocacy for electoral reforms, peace building initiatives, capacity building, human rights monitoring, and general support to the Electoral Management Body (EMB), amongst others. All these efforts are aimed at enhancing the credibility and transparency of the electoral processes. The strategy enabled the refinement of CSOs interventions to include consensus and collaborative45 initiatives on advocacy for electoral reforms. These occasioned key advocacy documents, namely the '10 Point Plan' and the '5 Key Asks'46. Notable successes achieved by CSOs include the semi-independence of the ZEC as evidenced by bringing the budget into conformity with the constitution and providing ZEC with a budget independent of the Ministry of Justice, as had been the case in the past, and other administrative reforms. The other reforms include, as mentioned earlier, the removal of the requirement for an electoral officer to witness how a visually impaired person votes and the establishment of the Electoral Court as a specialized division of the High Court- also required by the constitution, among others. Furthermore, a new and detailed Electoral Code of Conduct for Political Parties, which now criminalizes threatening statements by intimidators, was enacted. There was also the abolishment of the use of voter registration certificates (registration slips) for voting when a person's name does not appear on a voters' roll and the revocation of the Section 40F of the Electoral Act which required all foreign contributions for the purpose of voter education to be channelled through ZEC. Zimbabwe boasts of diverse local, regional and international civil society groups comprising women, youth, PWDs, emerging social groups, community based and faith-based organisations among others. In relation to the 2018 harmonized elections, ZESN coordinated six clusters of CSOs working on elections, democracy and governance in Zimbabwe. The clusters focused on the following programmatic areas; Election Monitoring and Observation, CVE, Legal and Medical Services, Oversight and Advocacy, Media and Elections, and Conflict Management. The clusters managed to undertake various interventions such as CVE; monitoring and observation of electoral processes and the political environment; early warning systems; advocacy initiatives on electoral reform and advocacy programmes targeting the electorate in particular women; and youth's participation, among others. The invitation for international observers was extended to include previously banned observer missions such as the European Union (EU), National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Commonwealth and the International Republican Institute (IRI). The major interventions were around peace building and citizen engagement, including CVE; promoting governmental accountability and transparency in governance processes through oversight and advocacy initiatives. These CSOs' interventions were informed by the CSOs Collaborative Elections Strategy that was developed in February 2017 by CSOs implementing governance and democracy interventions in Zimbabwe through their respective clusters. Furthermore, several CSOs conducted public and candidates debates or forum that sought to educate the electorate about candidates' manifestos. ZESN conducted a series of debates dubbed, “Making Elections Make Sense”, while the Southern African Political Economy Series Trust (SAPES Trust) and other CSOs engaged with policy makers on 45 http://www.zesn.org.zw/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ANALYSIS-OF-THE-ELECTORAL-AMENDMENT-ACT-OF-28-MAY-2018.pdf http://www.zesn.org.zw/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/The-Key-Asks.pdf 46 46 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN