EU Election Observation Mission Zimbabwe Harmonised Elections 2018 Preliminary Statement Page 7 of 12 1 August 2018 The switch to BVR commenced on 18 September 2017 and was completed only on 1 June 2018. This was a major effort for ZEC, which had sole responsibility for the first time. This relatively short time for registration, inspection and examination of the voter roll, particularly for a new and technically complex process, posed a challenge for ZEC. The final voter roll announced by the ZEC Chair on 9 July comprised 5,695,706 names. This represented a capture rate of some 78.8% compared to the mathematical votingage population projection used by ZEC, though this may have been one of the more conservative projections available. Registration data shows marked differences between some areas, with the main urban areas of Harare and Bulawayo, in particular, achieving lower capture rates. Under-registration was indicated also in some of the rural districts of Matabelaland North and South. The shared voter roll of mid-June was examined and audited by the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network. These audits identified a number of problems and mistakes, with many inaccuracies in voter addresses, but concluded that it represented an improvement compared to the one used in 2013. The law states that ZEC should make the voter roll available to political parties, nominated candidates and voters in an “analysable and searchable” form. ZEC provided an almost final version of the roll to stakeholders in mid-June, but the final roll used on Election Day was shared only partly, without a clear announcement by ZEC. While acknowledging the major effort ZEC made in undertaking the BVR, the lack of transparency and failure to provide clear and coherent information and data about voter registration overall added to a sense of mistrust among stakeholders of ZEC before the elections and clarifications on some of the anomalies remain outstanding, including the extent to which the deduplication process was undertaken. Constituency Delimitation The delimitation of constituencies for the National Assembly elections dates back to 2008, and does not reflect more recent census information. There are significant variations in the size of constituencies for the National Assembly elections. The largest constituency of Harare South, with 76,425 voters is over five times larger than the smallest of Gutu North, with 14,198 voters. Half of the constituencies differ from the average by more than 20%. As such, equal suffrage is not provided for. 5 Campaign Environment Political freedoms were respected during a generally peaceful campaign, but misuse of state resources and reports of intimidation of voters undermine belief in the right to vote freely There is a broad consensus among stakeholders that the 2018 election campaign was conducted with an unprecedented level of freedom, with voters actively participating in campaign events and civil society free to engage. The potentially restrictive legal framework, which was formerly used to control political activities, has not been globally enforced for these polls, and basic campaign freedoms of movement, assembly and expression have been respected. The campaign was largely peaceful, with some isolated cases of election-related violence, notably with intra-party conflicts resulting from the primaries. Peace pledges were signed at the national and lower levels, with candidates affirming their intention to abide by the 2018 Electoral Code of Conduct for Political Parties, Candidates, and other Stakeholders. The presidential campaign was very competitive, with both main candidates, President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF and Nelson Chamisa of the opposition MDC-A, conducting largescale rallies in all ten provinces. This marked an improvement over previous elections, when opposition rallies were restricted in several areas. In contrast to the generally peaceful campaign environment, a bomb attack on President Mnangagwa’s rally in Bulawayo on 23 June resulted in two members of the