the Army to retain power. It was documented that he was immediately reprimanded by the Government and his party. 3.2. Polling day Polling day passed on peacefully. There was a total of ten thousand nine hundred and eighty five (10985) polling centres throughout the country. According to the records availed by ZEC to the Commission, a total of four million seven hundred and seventy five thousand six hundred and forty (4 775 640) voters cast their ballots, representing a voter turnout of seventy five percent (75%). Reports from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU), as well as local and other foreign Observer Missions, hailed the huge voter turnout and the peaceful conduct of the elections. They also observed that all polling stations opened at 0700hrs and closed at 1900hrs, as stipulated in the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13 ]. The voting, vote counting, tallying and tabulation were done at the polling stations in the presence of Election Agents of contesting parties and candidates, ZEC officials and observers. The results on the V11 forms were displayed outside the polling centres. The election results beginning with parliamentary constituencies started to be announced as early as the 31st of July 2018. 3.3. ZEC Announcement of Results According to the evidence presented before the Commission, ZEC started announcing the election results by the 31st of July 2018. By the time the protests began, ZEC had announced results for seven constituencies. 15 15