ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Political parties and candidates violated the law by campaigning beyond the prescribed period. The law provides for a 'cooling-off period' within which it is prohibited for political parties and candidates to campaign40. Some political parties and candidates did not comply with the notice issued by the ZEC advising all political parties and candidates contesting in the harmonised elections to cease campaigning at midnight on 28 July 2018 in accordance with paragraph 7 of the Fourth Schedule to the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13]. A day before the election, some candidates were still campaigning. This was reported for a number of parties and candidates, for example the PRC candidate for council elections in Mt Pleasant and both ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance in Gutu South constituency. During this period the former president of Zimbabwe appeared at a press conference where he declared his preferred presidential candidate for the 2018 presidential race. On the other hand the presidential candidates for both ZANU-PF and MDC-Alliance also followed suit with their own press statements. All three statements were widely regarded as violations of 'cooling off period'. themselves to the electorate, namely, rallies; meetings; door-to-door campaigns; road shows; billboards; banners; posters; fliers; t-shirts; caps; wristbands; women's wrappers (mazambia); food items; farming inputs; barbeques; buying beer and airtime for the electorate; and the sponsoring of sporting or cultural events. The two main contending parties, ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance, held bumper rallies in different parts of the country ahead of the election. ZANUPF had many more billboards for its presidential candidate compared with the MDC Alliance. Commonly used by contending parties were posters on unpaid sites and fliers. In an attempt to solicit votes, ZANU-PF sent text messages to the electorate pleading with them to vote for its presidential and National Assembly candidates, whose names and cell phone numbers were specified. Figure 6 shows an example of the messages sent to the electorate. Figure 6: An example of the SMS sent to registered voters by ZANU-PF 10.3 Funding of Political Parties To the extent that it determines the degree to which parties effectively execute their activities, including mounting meaningful campaigns, political party funding is a key issue in the electoral process. In general, and in Zimbabwe in particular, the source of and criterion for political party funding have been contentious issues. For Zimbabwe, the law sets a threshold of representation in parliament as the basis for political party eligibility to receive public funding41. Further, foreign funding of political parties is prohibited in terms of Section 6 of the Political Parties Finance Act. In this context, it is parties that are eligible for public funding that should be expected to be financially privileged and fitter. Of the political parties in Zimbabwe, it is only ZANU-PF and the MDC-T that qualified for These messages caused controversy, with the main opposition, the MDC Alliance in particular, alleging collusion between the ZEC and ZANUPF, arguing that the former had provided the latter with the contact numbers of the voters. ZEC formally denied these allegations and dismissed as baseless. 40 The “cooling-off period” is a period when campaigning is disallowed and election advertising must not be published or displayed. In Zimbabwe it is 48 hours before polling. By law (the Political Parties Finance Act) any political party that garners at least 5% of the vote in the previous election is eligible to receive public fees 41 44 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN