IRI/NDI Zimbabwe International Election Observation Mission Final Report 27 issues identified in this report.”26 ZEC responded with a full-page newspaper rebuttal of the Team Pachedu claims.27 The ZEC printed polling station voter rolls for identification of voters inside each polling station. Regrettably, no additional printed voters rolls were furnished or posted outside of the polling station, allegedly due to lack of resources. This omission caused unnecessary confusion as some voters waited in the wrong queue at polling locations with multiple sub-stations. Political Parties and Candidate Nomination During the pre-election period, the question of who should control the MDC-T party name was the subject of litigation in courts and there were constant talks among leaders of the MDC Alliance and MDC-T regarding reuniting the fragmented alliance. As the matter was not resolved by the time of the Nomination Court sitting on June 14, the faction led by Chamisa registered its candidates under the MDC Alliance. Meanwhile, supporters of Thokozani Khupe registered candidates as MDC-T, raising questions about whether voters could make an informed choice on Election Day or whether the ability to distinguish between MDC Alliance and MDC-T would create confusion among the electorate. Even after the June 14 submissions to the Nomination Court,28 rumors of the formation of a grand coalition of opposition parties led by the MDC Alliance persisted. The grand coalition would have potentially brought together such parties as the People’s Rainbow Coalition (PRC), led by former vice president and presidential candidate Joice Mujuru; the National Patriotic Front (NPF), formed by members of the ZANU-PF faction that supported Grace Mugabe and that broke away from the ruling party after President Mugabe’s ouster; and ZAPU, which represented the remnants of the pre-merged ZANU and ZAPU parties. According to the April/May Afrobarometer pre-election baseline survey, 56 percent of Zimbabweans felt that a coalition of opposition parties would achieve better results than separately contesting.29 However, the grand coalition did not form, and only ZAPU formally aligned with MDC Alliance prior to the election. A total of 23 presidential candidates, including four women and one independent candidate, registered to contest the July 30 election.30 This represented a significant increase from the five candidates who contested in 2013, which did not include any women or independent candidates.31 However, even before the nominations were formalized, most analysts viewed the presidential election as a two-person contest between Mnangagwa and Chamisa. ZANU-PF primaries were held in late April 2018 with reruns transpiring in several constituencies where results were contested. The first round was marked by logistical difficulties, lack of capacity to print and deliver accurate ballot papers on time, failure to secure and adequately equip voting centers with ballot boxes and voters’ registers, flawed verification and missing names of 26 Zimbabwe 2018 Elections Biometric VotersRoll Analysis, July 16, 2018, https://www.teampachedu.org/mainreport. pdf. 27 Zimbabwe Election Support Network: Report on the Inspection of the Voters Roll, July 19, 2018, http://www.zesn. org.zw/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ZESN-Report-on-the-Inspection.pdf. 28 Manayiti, Obey, “Mujuru, Dabengwa ready to join Chamisa,” Newsday, May 25, 2018 https://www.newsday. co.zw/2018/05/mujuru-dabengwa-ready-to-join-chamisa/ 29 Afro Barometer, Findings from a Pre-Election Baseline Survey in Zimbabwe, April/ May 2018, http://afrobarometer. org/sites/default/files/zim_r7_presentation_07062018.pdf 30 On 24 July, presidential candidate Divine Hove of the National Alliance of Patriotic and Democratic Republicans announced his withdrawal from the race. 31 Zimbabwe Election Support Network Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections, 2013.