IRI/NDI Zimbabwe International Election Observation Mission Final Report 15 Preparations for the 2018 elections were already underway, including a biometric voter registration (BVR) process, which started in October 2017 when President Mnangagwa assumed office. Breaking with his predecessor, President Mnangagwa publicly committed himself to holding credible elections and invited a wide array of international observers, including organizations that had previously not been accredited. In February, just six months before the election, he appointed Justice Priscilla Chigumba as the new chairperson of ZEC. On May 30, he declared the elections would be held on July 30, making them Zimbabwe‘s first ever without Mugabe on the ballot, and the first since the political crisis began without Tsvangirai as the main opposition candidate. The 2018 elections provided a unique opportunity for the new government to demonstrate that the country was on a new trajectory toward consolidating the norms and institutions of democracy. As a sign of public interest in reform, a 2017 Afrobarometer public opinion survey revealed that most Zimbabweans “prefer democracy over any other political system.”2 However, in the context of decades of flawed electoral processes, some Zimbabweans had doubts that the 2018 elections would meet the minimum threshold for elections that reflect the genuine will of the citizens of the country.3 Therefore, extraordinary measures were necessary to inculcate the electorate with confidence in the electoral process. Afro Barometer, Zimbabwe Round 7 Summary of Results, 2017, http://afrobarometer.org/publications/zimbabweround-7-summary-results-2017 3 Afro Barometer, April/May 2018. 29 percent of respondents doubted that their vote would be counted while 44 percent believed that incorrect results would be announced. http://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/zim_r7_ presentation_07062018.pdf 2