ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 3. Political Background On 30 July 2018, Zimbabwe held its harmonized elections for the President, Members of Parliament (MPs) at the constituency level, and Councillors at ward level. An unprecedented 23 presidential candidates contested. In addition, 1648 candidates from 55 political parties and 3 political party coalitions participated in elections for National Assembly while 6796 candidates participated in the local government elections. Another peculiarity of the 30 July 2018 election was the absence of former President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai who had been key protagonists in preceding elections. The former resigned before the completion of an impeachment process that had been initiated in the midst of a military intervention in November 2017, dubbed 'Operation Restore Legacy', while the latter succumbed to cancer on 14 February 2018. Thus there were new presidential candidates for both ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance. The high voter turnout of 82.5 %could partly be attributed to the participation of new presidential candidates, the new voters' registration process which required all voters to register afresh for the 2018 elections, and the relatively peaceful pre-electoral environment. Despite the high number of independent candidates and parties that participated, the elections essentially appeared to be a race between ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance as they were the most visible throughout the campaign season. 14 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN