ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe ZESN deployed a total of 2012 static and roving observers to observe at select centres across the country. Registration was initially done, starting in September, at 63 District Centres across the country before it was extended to all wards, in phases, starting from 10 October 2017. proof of residence requirement; the absence of Commissioners of Oaths at some centres; prospective registrants bringing inappropriate identification documents such as a driver's licence; registration centres running out of the VR1 and VR9 forms and the print roll for registration slips; and the changing of officially announced registration centres for the phased registration process without notification. The BVR “blitz “commenced on 10 October 2017 and ended on 19 December 2017. However, at the conclusion of the fourth phase of the BVR, the apparent need for an extension of this process was evident as ZEC had only been able to enrol 65 % of 28 the targeted voting population . An analysis of the registration figures at the end of the four phases indicated that Harare and Bulawayo had recorded the lowest percentages of registered voters, at 54.5 % and 50 % respectively. The Midlands province, at 77.3 % of its target, signifying the highest registration rates at the end of phase 4 of the BVR exercise. 6.6 Mop-Up Voter Registration Exercise In response to widespread calls for an extension of the registration process, ZEC conducted a mop-up voter registration exercise from 10 January to 8 February 2018. Simultaneously, ZEC also introduced mobile registration centres, to make registration centres more accessible to citizens for continued registration. Unfortunately these efforts were hindered that the lack of publicity of the mobile registration centres. In many instances, the centres were not located in the areas that had been identified as high traffic centres during the phased BVR blitz. Widespread misinformation and intimidation of registrants were reported throughout the four phases and mop-up of the BVR exercise. Intimidatory tactics employed by some political contestants included the recording of registrants' registration slips' serial numbers with a warning that their political party would be able to track individual voting preferences on election day. Factors that impacted negatively on registration outcomes included that, the proclamation of BVR dates was not preceded by voter education to inform voters about the location of registration centres and the requirements needed for one to register under the new BVR system. Consequently, registrants only knew of the requirements at the point of registration resulting in some being turned away. In addition the registration dates were affected by the procurement challenges of the BVR which led to the revision of the commencement of voter registration exercise. This is turn affected the preparation of subsequent electoral processes such as inspection of the voters' roll and preparation of the voter register. 6.7 Inspection of the Voters' Roll Section 17 of the Electoral Act states that: “Voter registration shall be conducted on a continuous basis so as to keep the voters' roll up to date”. This means that voter registration should happen throughout the electoral cycle. Once the roll has been compiled, Section 21 of the Act stipulates that the voters' roll is a public document and open to inspection by the public, free of charge during ordinary office hours and the Commission shall, within a reasonable period, provide any person who requests the roll and pays the prescribed fee, Other challenges that were encountered during the BVR process included: logistical issues with accreditation which resulted in delays in the delivery of observers' accreditation lists to provincial ZEC offices; missing accreditation lists; high costs of accreditation; malfunctioning of the solar-powered kits during the rainy season; the 28 29 According to statistics released by ZEC a total of 4,727,376 people were registered during the 72 day long exercise representing 65% of the 7,224,128 million projected by ZESN in 2017. See <http://www.zesn.org.zw/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ZESN-2018-Population-Projections-for-Zimbabweans-Aged-18.pdf> Section 21 of the Electoral Act. 26 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN