IRI/NDI Zimbabwe International Election Observation Mission Final Report 37 political and electoral processes. Though some voter education materials were produced in braille, the extent to which the material was developed and disseminated is unknown. Section 59 of the Electoral Amendment Act provided, for the first time, that illiterate or physically handicapped people can be assisted by persons of their choice when casting their votes, however, some concerning omissions in the law pertaining to the right to a secret ballot (especially for the visually impaired) remain.49 At the polling stations that ZIEOM observed, the ZEC provided lowered voting booths to facilitate access for voters using wheelchairs but overall access for PWDs at polling centers remained a challenge. Eighty percent of Zimbabweans are Shona speakers; Ndebeles, Zimbabwe’s largest minority group, make up approximately 20 percent of the total population. The majority of the voter education materials circulated by the ZEC were in Shona, Ndebele, and English, and civil society groups made a concerted effort to provide voter education material in other officially spoken languages. The Ndebele people were victims of government massacres in the 1980s and while MDC and ZANU-PF have sought to include Ndebeles as party vice presidents and in other senior party positions, concerns remain that Ndebeles remain marginalized by both parties.50 49 Section 59 (5)(a) provides that in the case of a voter who is visually impaired, the presiding officer shall observe the casting of the vote in order to ensure that the voter’s intention is respected by the person assisting him or her. In May 2018, ZLHR filed an urgent chamber application with the High Court on behalf of Mr. Abraham Mateta, a human rights lawyer who is visually impaired, seeking to compel the ZEC to ensure secrecy of the ballot, especially for visually impaired voters, by providing ballot papers in braille. He argued that the provision in the Electoral Act providing that visually impaired people could bring a person of their choice or be assisted by electoral officers was not sufficient to ensure secrecy of the ballot as provided for in Section 67(3) of the Constitution. The court dismissed the application on the basis that the Electoral Act provided adequate provisions. 50 Some Ndebeles expressed concerns in the MDC Alliance selection of Nelson Chamisa, as Shona, over Thokozani Khupe, a Ndebele, as its presidential candidate, fueling the perception that only a male Shona speaker could run for president.