For the 2018 elections, there were 23 presidential candidates, four of whom were women candidates. One of the 23 candidates withdrew days before the poll. Senate Section 120 of the Constitution and the Eighth Schedule of the Electoral Act set out a system for proportional representation of political parties having obtained votes in the elections for the National Assembly. Candidates are advanced from lists submitted by political parties and are appointed in proportion to the total number of votes obtained by that party in each of the 10 provinces, with 6 senators appointed for each province. Eighteen seats are reserved for chiefs. Of these, pursuant to Part X (Sections 40–44) of the Electoral Act, 16 are elected from electoral colleges of chiefs established under the Traditional Leaders Act, with two chiefs elected from each of the eight provinces (i.e. not including the metropolitan ones, Harare and Bulawayo) from candidates nominated by other chiefs of the same college. For the processes of nomination and election, the ZEC appoints one of its officers as the presiding officer. In accordance with Section 120(1)(c) of the Constitution, the President and Deputy President of the Council of Chiefs referred to in Section 37 of the Traditional Leaders Act are appointed senators. There are two Senate seats reserved for persons with disabilities (one female and one male). They are to be elected in accordance with the Seventh Schedule of the Electoral Act, which requires that the candidates should be persons with disabilities elected by the Electoral College for Persons with Disabilities, to be established by the National Disability Board. National Assembly The same nationality and registration criteria as for presidential candidates apply to parliamentary candidates. However, they must be at least 21 years of age. Parliamentary candidates can be sponsored by political parties or stand as independents. The candidate receiving the greatest number of votes is determined to be elected. For these elections, there were 1,652 National Assembly candidates. Local government authority (councillors) The same nationality and age requirements for National Assembly members apply to the candidates contesting local authority seats. However, they must be normally resident in the locality in which they are contesting. The candidate receiving the greatest number of votes is determined to be elected. For the 2018 election, there were 7,573 candidates for local authorities. 16