to the ones they wanted to contest in. This may be a pointer into the inadequacies in voter education for nomination prior to the commencement of the process. Political Environment The nomination process was generally peaceful with few incidents of disturbances being recorded on Nomination day. There were two cases of disruptions reported at the Nomination Courts arising from disputes over primary elections. For instance, In Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe, Mashonaland East Province, police had to be called in to remove one aspiring candidate who had forced his way into the Nomination Court having been withdrawn by the party. In another case, at the Chitungwiza Municipality Office, in Harare Province, some supporters of the MDC Alliance blocked the gate, preventing some people who had lost in the primary elections from entering the Nomination Court. In Shamva South, Mashonaland Central, one candidate forced a vendor outside the Court to append her signature so that the candidate could have the required number of nominees. Earlier on, ZESN LTOs had observed 54 primary elections in May. Voting for the final candidate took place by secret ballot in 42 of these cases. Furthermore, LTOs subsequently reported on 8 incidents arising from contestants disputing the results of the primaries or decisions by the party. Such incidents included the disruption of a rival’s campaign rally and instances where two candidates from the same party tried to stand for nomination as happened with two People’s Rainbow Coalition candidates in Epworth. In view of these observations, there is need to improve party primary processes so as to reduce/avoid such disputes and cases of people trying to submit nomination forms without the approval of their parties. Presence of political party agents In three quarters of the Nomination Courts where ZESN observed, political party agents and other observers were present. The MDC Alliance and ZANU-PF were the political parties that deployed agents more comprehensively across the country followed by the People’s Rainbow Coalition (PRC). Figure 2 below depicts the presence of party agents by political party. Political Party Agents Present MDC-Alliance ZANU-PF People's Rainbow Coalition NPF Other Dominant Party in the Area None 0 20 40 60 80 100 Fig.2: Presence of party agents at nomination courts by political party 3|Page