enhancing democracy, ZESN strongly recommends that political parties put in place mechanisms to ensure equal representation between men and women. As illustrated in the table below, the two major parties have fielded less than 10% female candidates as their contestants. Recording a relatively high figure is the Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T with 20% of its candidates being female. 100% 91% 90% 81% 80% 80% 60% 40% 20% 20% 19% 10% 9% 0% ZanuPf MDC Alliance Men Women PRC MDC-T Fig 4: Comparison between male and female candidates for the 2018 elections From the illustration, it is clear that the number of women in political parties remains significantly low as compared to their male counterparts. This shows that the barriers that existed in preventing women from participating in politics still exist and, if not dealt with, the trend may continue or even worsen. Unopposed Local Authority Wards Of the 1958 local authority wards in Zimbabwe, 90 are unopposed3 for the 2018 harmonised elections of which 84 have only ZANU PF candidates while the MDC has fielded 6 candidates for the remainder of the unopposed wards. Below are the lists of unopposed wards according to province: Manicaland Province LOCAL AUTHORITY WARD CANDIDATE NAME SEX 1. Chimanimani RDC 2. Chipinge RDC 3. Makoni RDC 11 8 37 M M M 4. Nyanga RDC 16 Moyana John Muyayiso Phillip Chiripamberi Taurai W Sachirera Johannes UNOPPOSED POLITICAL PARTY ZANU PF ZANU PF ZANU PF M MDC WARD CANDIDATE NAME SEX POLITICAL PARTY Mashonaland Central LOCAL AUTHORITY 3 http://www.zec.gov.zw/election-notice-board/nomination-court/file/496-results-of-nomination-courts-forlocal-authorities 8|Page