ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections Dumiso Dabengwa Kisinoti Mukwazhe Spoilt Ballots Total voters ZAPU ZDP 25,416 9,931 69,280 3,480,047 0,74 per cent 0,29 per cent Table: 19 Number of seats won by each party in local government elections: City, town and rural-district councils PROVINCE ZANU-PF Bulawayo 0 Harare 24 Manicaland* 197 Mashonaland Central 226 Mashonaland East 216 Mashonaland West* 191 Masvingo 224 Matabeleland North* 84 Matabeleland South 110 Midlands 221 TOTAL 1,493 Source Herald: 16 August 2013 MDC-T MDC ZAPU INDEP OTHER EQUALITY OF VOTES TOTAL 29 54 62 5 13 38 18 104 47 72 442 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 3 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 29 78 200 232 229 231 242 193 168 296 1,958 1 0 1 *This shows the places where ZEC is conducting run-off elections for 3 ward councillors as candidates garnered the same amount of votes and there was no decisive winner. These elections will take place in Kadoma Municipality Ward 4, Mutasa Ward 30 and Kusile Ward 5 rural district councils. Analysis of results These election results show several interesting trends that began during the referendum in March 2013. The harmonised elections recorded a very highnumber of voters turning out to vote. It was even higher than in the March 2013 referendum, which stood at 3,316,082. On the face of it, this is a very positive development as it signals a significant level of voter participation. At 53 per cent of the total number of registered voters it is higher than 42.7 per cent recorded in the March 2008 harmonised elections. This should be read with the fact that there are well-documented problems with the voters’ roll and that it is likely the official figure of about 6.4 million voters is inflated. So the figure of registered voters are likely to be less and therefore the voter turnout higher. Also, the real turnout is actually higher because 70 | P a g e