concerning election process. The radio platform paved way for engagement with the youth, religious institutions or leaders of various congregations and the government institutions in electoral issues. In this regard the Eminent Persons delegation comprised of prominent religious personnel to emphasize the need to of inclusivity of varying stakeholders in election matters. k) Gender perspective in the Zimbabwe Harmonized Elections The 2018 harmonized elections made history when for the first time four (4) women contested as Presidential candidates. These were Joyce Mujuru of the People’s Rainbow Coalition (PRC), Thokhozani Khupe of MDC-T, Violet Mariyacha of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) and Melba Dzapasi of the # 1980 Freedom Movement of Zimbabwe. Their participation in the presidential race created a lot of interest in the electoral process when the four candidates were featured in a live debate on various topics during the run up to elections. According to the 2012 Census10, 52% of the country’s population are women, the decline in the number of women in political leadership positions has been attributed to several factors some of which include intimidation by male counterparts, lack of financial resources to mention but a few. The Zimbabwe Constitution Chapter 2 Section 17 (1) (a & b) promotes the full participation of women in all spheres of the Zimbabwean Society on an equal basis with men. Further, the Gender Commission which operates independently focuses among other issues on discrimination. However, despite these provisions, in political leadership areas, Zimbabwe has not achieved the desired results. The 8th Parliament of Zimbabwe had a total of 350 Members of which 226 were men and 124 were women. Although this was improvement from the 7th Parliament, it represented 35% instead of the 50% of the total number of Parliamentarians which women’s groups and other lobby groups have been advocating for. Therefore, the participation in the presidential race was seen as a positive step towards gender equality. On a positive note, the eminent observers noted the high number of female polling officials at most of the polling stations. Table 3 below shows the proportional representation women’s quota for the 2018 elections. Table 3: Showing proportional representation women's quota 2018 harmonised elections 10 https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/wphc/Zimbabwe/ZWE_CensusPreliminary2012.pdf 18