polling stations. A total of 58 polling station based volunteers were deployed in all 11 wards making up the Bikita West Constituency. Two Heal Zimbabwe mobile teams of observers accredited by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) were also deployed. The teams monitored 46 of the 58 polling stations. To improve data quality Heal Zimbabwe also used data sources or records from other organisations that were collaboratively monitoring the byelection. All data received from volunteers was verified through Heal Zimbabwe officials and trained Human Rights Monitors and other trusted sources. 4. Electoral Environment and Electoral Related Violations Heal Zimbabwe monitored the pre-election campaign atmosphere and the polling day environment. A total of 17 human rights violations peculiar to elections were tracked and 7 of them were witnessed as characterising the pre-election and polling day environment. These violations include; threats of violence and intimidation, disruption of political gatherings, assault of political opponents, forced attendance to rallies, vote buying, and destruction of campaign material, partisan distribution food aid and farming inputs. Among violations recorded between the 1st and the 21st of January 2017, 91% of violations constituted the preelection environment while 9% involved violations recorded on the polling day. In the preelection environment (recording from 1st and 20th of January 2017), the highest form of violation recorded is intimidation with 56% while the least violations recording 1% each were disruption of political gatherings and assault (on the basis of political issues). On the polling day, 88% of violations involved intimidation while 12% accounted for people forced to attend a meeting immediately after casting their ballot. This means the polling day was relatively peaceful as opposed to the campaign period prior to the 21st of January 2017. Heal Zimbabwe between 01 November 2016 and 21 January 2017 recorded 136 human rights violations in Bikita West. Below are Heal Zimbabwe’s findings on the violations recorded three weeks before the polling day as well as violations noted on the polling day. 4.1 Pre-election Environment The pre-election environment is the political atmosphere running up to the Election Day. Heal Zimbabwe started monitoring the election campaign environment in Bikita West constituency from the 1st of November 2016 until the 20th of January 2016. However, the quantitative data presented here covers 1st – 21st of January 2017. A total of six candidates 4