Key observations – Election Day  The election was generally well organised, with adequate polling stations spread across the country, including in rural and urban areas; adequate deployment of properly trained and professional polling officers; and an adequate supply of election material, including ballots, distributed to polling stations.  Election materials were delivered two to three days prior to the Election Day. To secure the ballots, police officers and some polling officials had to sleep at the polling stations.  It was also noted that the 2018 Harmonised Elections were the first elections in which the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission created its own voters roll. The new roll was based on the digital capturing of a voter’s biometric (photo and fingerprints) and biographical data. This new roll was seen as a major improvement. It was largely regarded as accurate and credible.  Following the certification of the final voters roll, political parties did not have adequate opportunity, in advance of Election Day, to review, identify and correct shortcomings on the roll. This is an important step to enable political parties to verify that voters presenting themselves to vote are properly registered.  The print quality of the ballot was poor, leaving print marks on ballot papers. These print marks could lead to the mistaken impression that a voter had made multiple marks on the ballot or may have voted for more than one candidate. The Group witnessed incidents of ballot papers having to be re-issued because voters complained of these print marks. The ballot also included political parties with very similar names and two political parties with identical emblems.  The Group received complaints that political parties were not permitted to test the indelible ink used in the voting process. Political parties also complained that they were not given the opportunity to review and comment on the design and layout of the ballot prior to printing, or to observe and monitor the printing, storage and distribution of ballot papers.  Additionally, concerns were expressed regarding the arrangement of candidates on the presidential ballot into two columns of 14 and 9 candidates respectively, which gave an unfair advantage to the ZANU-PF candidate by placing him at the top of the second column. The explanation provided by the ZEC was that the arrangement followed a specified template format. However, this explanation was not consistent, as the layout and size of the ballots observed varied. 47