ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 8. Voter Education Voter education in Zimbabwe is provided for in the Constitution and the Electoral Act. Section 239 (h) of the Constitution provides for ZEC to conduct and supervise voter education. Part IXA of the Electoral Act defines voter education as any course or programme of instruction on electoral law and procedure aimed at voters generally, thus limiting the definition to what is more properly regarded as voter information rather than education. Section 40B (1) (b) of the Electoral Act also provides that ZEC must ensure that the voter education provided by others is adequate, accurate, and unbiased. Furthermore, Section 40B (3) provides that ZEC “may permit any person to assist it in providing voter education.” ZEC is required by the law to start a programme of voter education within a week of the proclamation of election dates. billboards, pitching information kiosks at public places such as churches and shopping centres, radio and television (TV) programmes, print media adverts and social media. These methodologies contributed to increased access to civic voter education (CVE) by various categories of voters. 8.1 ZEC Voter Education ZEC voter education for the 2018 harmonised election was informed by a ZEC Five-year Voter Education Strategy developed in March 2016. The strategy was premised on the importance of using a multi- media, a multi-sectoral approach and continued voter education (VE), unlike previous years where VE was done periodically. In this regard, ZEC provided early accreditation to over 79 organisations to complement its efforts. Prior to the 2018 elections, ZEC organised workshops to develop voter education materials and messages, and invited input into the process from CSOs such as ZESN, Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ), the National Association of Youth Organisations (NAYO), the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH), and the Election Resource Centre (ERC). This resulted in the creation of innovative voter mobilization strategies that were used by the Commission. ZEC accredited 79 organisations to conduct voter education for voter registration and the election period. Voter education initiatives by CSOs were more visible in 2018 when compared with previous electoral cycles. This is partly attributed to the relaxation of some of the stringent requirements that CSOs needed to meet before permission was granted by the Commission to conduct voter education. The legal framework for voter education was amended to repeal the requirement to disclose sources of funding to ZEC, and the need to channel foreign funding through ZEC by organisations that intended to conduct voter education. ZEC used a plethora of strategies for its voter education campaign and this included the deployment of four mobile voter educators per ward nationwide, road shows, door to door, radio and TV programmes, radio adverts, jingles, newspaper adverts and print and dissemination of pamphlets, flyers and posters, t/shirts, caps, hats bags and billboards with voter education messaging. In terms of messaging, ZEC focused mainly on providing information on the nature of the BVR, the requirements for registration as a voter, inspection of the voters' roll and voter information on voting, voting processes, assisted voters, voters' rights, the polling station set up and locations and peace and secrecy of the vote, dates Commendably, the voter education conducted by various electoral stakeholders was more visible and more comprehensive than in previous election cycles. There were also deliberate efforts to convey voter education messages in local languages including targeting specific groups such as women, the youth, and People with Disabilities (PWDs). ZESN and its CSOs partners conducted vibrant voter education campaigns and information dissemination to the electorate using methodologies such as road shows, use of popular artists, video skits, door to door campaigns, 35 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN