ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections referenda. ZEC is also mandated to monitor the media’s coverage of the election and to consider complaints from the public and take action to address these complaints. Constitutional Amendment No.19 of 2008, which gave effect to the GPA, increased the number of ZEC commissioners from five to eight and stipulated that at least four of these commissioners should be women. Thus in 2013, the commission had five female commissioners including the chairperson. For the 2013 harmonised elections, ZEC faced many challenges. It came into the elections with a history of alleged partisanship of the commissioners and staff24. It was also burdened by the legacy of the disastrous management of results in 2008. The year began with the resignation of the then chairperson of the ZEC, Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe, in February 2013, but he was soon replaced by Justice Rita Makarau. Thereafter ZEC conducted a technically successful referendum, which raised hopes that it would ably meet the challenges of the harmonized poll under the leadership of the new chairperson. The success of the referendum was attributed to the fact that the requirements were relatively straight forward. Since every citizen is eligible to vote in a referendum, there is no need for a voters’ roll. Additionally, voters can vote anywhere in the country. All the parties in the GNU campaigned for a ‘Yes’ vote, and urged all their supporters to vote. The turnout was therefore high as there was relatively no contest. There was only one ballot paper with two choices for the voter, so processing was fast and not overly complicated. Apart from the issue of citizen confidence, ZEC has struggled to secure funding for its work. Funds were slow in coming and they were disbursed partially, a case in point being the mobile voter registration that was heavily constrained due to a lack of funding. In the Minister of Finance’s budget for 2013, the vote for the referendum and the general elections was not adequately covered. In preparation for the elections, ZEC had been receiving funding and technical assistance from the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA) and technical assistance from several donors through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The government refused to receive external funding for the elections and the Ministry of Finance released funding at a piecemeal rate during the elections. Funding was received a week before the elections, and whilst this proved sufficient for the actual poll day, it must also be noted that it was insufficient funding that led to shortened voter registration periods and the inability of many people to register to vote. 24 ‘Pre-Election Detectors- ZANU-PF’s attempt to reclaim political hegemony’ Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. 24 | P a g e