ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections of potential rural voters were registered, while only about 67.94 per cent of the potential urban voters were registered. At 82 per cent of urban polling stations ZESN observers reported that potential voters were turned away and not permitted to vote for reasons that included names not appearing on the voters’ roll and turning up at the wrong ward for voting. This was in sharp contrast to rural areas where only 38 per cent of polling stations turned away many potential voters. This served to disenfranchise thousands more urban voters. These factors on their own fundamentally compromised the credibility and fairness of 2013 harmonised elections. The limited time to prepare for the elections affected the electoral process. Key aspects of the process, in particular the registration of voters, were insufficiently funded. Funding for other key processes was often received late. Politically, the process suffered from the continued suspicion and mistrust between the contesting parties, biased media coverage, intimidation of prospective voters, and the lack of intraparty democracy, among other factors. There were incidents of harassment of civil society activists who were arrested during the campaign, a significant number of them on charges of conducting voter education without the authorization of the electoral commission. ZESN makes the following recommendations to improve the conduct of elections in Zimbabwe:         Massive and adequate voter education to be provided to citizens in order to ensure the franchise of all citizens. The voter registration process needs to be conducted timeously to ensure that eligible voters are registered. In addition, ZEC needs to address the rural-urban bias in voter registration as urban voters faced difficulties while the rural registration was smooth and without hurdles. ZEC needs to interrogate the huge numbers of assisted voters and people turned away in order to rectify particular anomalies in the environment. ZEC should be in total control of the Voters’ Roll and not the Registrar-General’s office. In addition, there is need to start working on the polling station-based voters’ roll using the 2013 voter information gathered at the polling stations. Polling station based voters’ roll is provided for in the law so that it can be used in the next elections. There is need to consider biometric voters’ roll system as a way of enhancing transparency in the electoral system. ZEC needs to stick to best practice regarding the printing of extra ballot papers as the production of 35 per cent more ballots is high and outside internationally accepted standards. ZEC needs to be adequately funded to ensure proper implementation of electoral processes, such as voter registration and voter education, among others. ZEC needs to ensure consistency in the application of regulations with regard to particular requirements for voter registration and voting with registration slips, as there were inconsistencies across polling stations. 8|Page