EU Election Observation Mission Zimbabwe Harmonised Elections 2018 Preliminary Statement Page 11 of 12 1 August 2018 A large number of women have been elected to parliament. This is due to two measures of affirmative action included in the 2013 Constitution. Sixty of the 270 seats in the National Assembly are reserved for women, while party lists for the 60 15seats in the Senate are headed by women and list women and men alternately. One of the two senators to represent persons with disabilities also must be a woman. Political parties did not, however, nominate women in significant numbers as candidates. In the direct election for 210 seats in the National Assembly, only 14.75% of the candidates were women. Women were nominated in just 126 of the 210 constituencies. Not a single member elected to the National Council of Chiefs is female and it is anticipated that none of the 18 senators elected to represent them will be female either. There are no special measures applicable to women in local authority elections, and women comprised just 17% of the candidates in those elections. Yet women comprise 52% of the population and 54% of the registered voters nationwide. Some aspects of this election have represented progress towards the advancement of the participation of women. Amendments to the Electoral Act required that a gender perspective be mainstreamed in the work of ZEC and of election observers. Four of the 23 presidential candidates were women, the first time there had ever been a female candidate for this office. During the campaign, however, gender stereotypes were visible, focusing on the social role of women rather than on their leadership capacity. There was much denigration of the personal morality of women, with a political environment which could be characterised as inherently hostile towards women. 8 Participation of Persons with Disabilities Persons with disability have reserved representation, but further administrative reform could help improve their access to a secret ballot Zimbabwe acceded to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2013, but has yet to give effect to the Convention in domestic law. While the Constitution prohibits unfair discrimination on disability grounds, the provision is heavily circumscribed, and there is no explicit guarantee of the political rights of persons with disabilities. Prevailing legislation, the Disabled Persons Act, 1992, reflects a welfare, rather than a rights-based, perspective. There is, however, a measure of special representation for persons with disabilities in the Senate, with a woman and a man from this community chosen by an electoral college to represent the sector. Difficulties in gaining access to polling stations were observed in 10% of polling stations visited by the EU EOM on Election Day. Representing a progressive innovation, polling booths with low ledges were provided in a large portion of polling stations observed by the EU EOM, in a measure to facilitate the participation of wheel-chair users. Secrecy was not accorded to persons with visual impairments, as companion intervention had to be relied upon to vote, rather than the use of Braille or assistive technology. The High Court ruled, in advance of the election, that Braille was impractical as levels of Braille literacy are low amongst those with visual impairments. Persons with disabilities themselves advocate an absolute vindication of their right to a secret ballot. 15 The Senate comprises 60 members elected on party lists, plus 18 senators representing the Council of Chiefs and two representing persons with disability.