Political parties did not nominate women in significant numbers as candidates. In the direct election of 210 seats in the National Assembly, only 14.75% of the candidates (243) were women. Women were nominated in just 126 of the 210 constituencies, while 20 of the 47 political parties which nominated candidates did not nominate a single woman. Legal regulation of political parties is extremely limited. Existing law does not contain any provision which requires affirmative action or gender mainstreaming within political party structures. There are no special measures applicable to women in local authority elections. In 2013, women secured just 16% of the membership of these bodies across the country. Women comprised just 17% of the candidates in the local authority elections for these elections. On the face of it, some aspects of these elections represented progress towards the advancement of equality for women. Four of the 23 candidates for president were women. Additionally, the Electoral Act was amended in advance of these elections to require ZEC to mainstream gender awareness throughout all of its functions, while the legislation also newly required all accredited observers to address the impact of the elections on women in their observation. The reality, however, is that there is a significant gap between the participation of women and men in political life. Traditional, patriarchal, cultural and socio-economic barriers have historically contributed to the marginalisation of women. Gender stereotypes were visible during the election campaign, particularly evident in much psychological violence against women. There was significant denigration of the personal morality of female candidates. Defamatory remarks, amounting to hate speech, punished women for straying outside their gender roles. The political environment was hostile to women. XII. Participation of Persons with Disability Persons with disability have reserved representation, but further administrative reform could help improve their access to a secret ballot Zimbabwe acceded to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2013, but no legislation has yet been introduced to align domestic law with the commitments in the Convention. Prevailing law, the Disabled Persons Act, 1992, reflects a welfare rather than a rights-based perspective, from which political rights are absent. In the Constitution of 2013 there is a guarantee of the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as a prohibition on unfair discrimination on disability grounds in Section 56. The provisions are, however, heavily circumscribed. The Constitution does not contain any specific guarantee of the political rights of persons with disabilities. Recommendation 16: Incorporate the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into domestic law. The Constitution includes protection for the right to vote of all citizens and for this vote to be cast in secret. Braille ballot papers, tactile ballot guides or other assistive measures have never been provided for persons with visual and other impairments. Assisted voting is provided for by law instead, which denies a secret ballot. The High Court, in July 2018, rejected the application of a 31