ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections Some incidents were also caused by people that had failed to vote in the special vote. ZESN observers reported that that these voters were bussed in and they would jump queues thereby congesting the station particularly in Harare and most urban areas. There was no clarity on whether these people were in the voters’ roll and voting in the right constituency and wards since they were supposed to be issued with envelopes for special voting in their respective constituencies. In addition there were no mechanisms in place to guard against double and multiple voting. This was due to the fact that the main voters’ roll was not ready and not crossed over in the presence of party agents and observers during the Special Voting. Counting of ballots at polling stations According to the law, counting of ballots must be conducted immediately after closing processes at the polling station and in the presence of election agents, candidates and observers. After counting, the presiding officer completes a polling station return, known as the V11 form, which is the ballot accounting form for that polling station. Polling agents may sign the form if they agree with the counting process but failure by party polling agents to do so does not invalidate the result of the counting process at the polling station. After the form is completed it must be stuck outside the polling station to allow members of the public to inspect it and record the contents of the form should they wish to do so. At 98 per cent ofall polling stations ZESN observers reported that no one attempted to intimidate or influence election officials during the counting, nor did anyone attempt to disrupt the counting process. At 99 per cent of polling stations where ZANU-PF polling agents were present they signed the V-11 results form. MDC-T polling agents signed the V-11 results form at 97 per cent of polling stations at which they were present. At 97 per cent of polling stations where MDC (Ncube) polling agents were present, and at 84 per cent of polling agents from all other parties signed the V-11 results form. At 90 per cent of polling stations all polling agents present were given a copy of the V-11 results form and at 97 per cent of polling stations the official results were posted outside. Tabulation of Results Following the announcement of results at the polling stations the presiding officers were required to transmit the polling station return certificate including ballot paper accounting form, all ballot boxes and papers, and the presiding officer’s statement to the ward elections officer at the ward collation centre. The ward elections officer then verified all polling station returns in the presence of each candidate or their election agents and tallied the votes received by each candidate as indicated on each polling station return. The ward election officer was then required to unseal the postal ballot box and special ballot box, and count the postal and special ballot box votes using the same procedures applied in the polling station and add these to the ward tally. The ward return form, known as V23A, was then completed and again polling agents could sign if they agreed with the process. This form is also supposed to be posted outside the ward collation centres. 65 | P a g e