ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe Figure 17: Voters turned away In only 6% of the polling stations where ZESN had observers, no one was assisted to vote while, in 3% of the polling stations, no woman was assisted to vote. In addition, 34% of the stations recorded between 1-5 people being assisted to vote. At 43% of the polling stations, some (between six and 25) people were assisted to vote while in 32% of the centres many were assisted. Figure 18 shows, the majority of those assisted to vote were women. How many people were turned away and not allowed to vote? 100% 80% 60% 41% 38% 40% 20% 11% 0% None 10% Few Some Figure 18: Distribution of Assisted Voters by Sex Many 60% Mashonaland Central province recorded the highest number of stations (16%) that did not have any voters turned away while Bulawayo Metropolitan (24%) had most centres with people turned away. Matabeleland South Province (60%) had most of the centres with the least people turned away, while Bulawayo Metropolitan province had the highest number (52%) of polling stations where people were turned away. 43% 50% 38% 34% 40% 32% 22% 22% 30% 20% 6% 3% 10% 0% None Few Both (Men & Women) Some Many Women Source: MESN Figure 19 shows the distribution of assisted voters by province. Figure 19: Distribution of Assisted Voters by Province 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Manicaland Mashonaland Mashonaland Mashonaland Bulawayo Harare Central East West Metropolitan Metropolitan None Few Some Masvingo Matabeleland Matabeleland North South Midlands Many Source: ZESN Counting: According to the law, counting of ballots must be conducted immediately after closing processes at the polling station, and in the presence of election agents, candidates and observers. ZESN observers were permitted to observe counting at polling stations where they were stationed. At 93% of the sampled polling stations, all party agents present were given a copy of the presidential results form. At most polling stations, the presidential results were posted immediately after counting finished. However, ZESN observed that presidential results were posted less frequently for Bulawayo and Matabeleland North province than other provinces. 58 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN