been a “hunting down and harassment of polling agents for independent candidates and opposition political parties, resulting in bodily and emotional harm as well as damage to property.” This applied to both urban and rural communities, with the burning down of the homestead of an MDCAlliance polling agent in Mutoko East also catalogued. XV Electoral Disputes The handling of the legal challenge against the outcome of the presidential election was transparent and timely, but overall the handling of election disputes highlights that the right to an effective legal remedy is not adequately provided for A Pre-Election Court Applications and Offences The right to a legal remedy is provided for in the Constitution, which also empowers ZEC to receive and resolve complaints filed by citizens and to take such action as required. However, the Electoral Act does not contain administrative complaint mechanisms, except for those related to voter registration. Hence, election-related disputes are resolved only by the judiciary, resulting in protracted adversarial processes which, considering the absence of time limits for the setting down of hearing and delivery of judgements in pre-election court challenges, do not always ensure a timely and effective legal remedy.85 Recommendation 20: Incorporate provisions for an administrative complaint mechanism within ZEC which will enable voters to seek protection of their rights. Moreover, the limited constitutional independence and transparency in the appointments of the Chief Justice, the Deputy Chief Justice and the Judge President of the High Court, and the opaque system of allocation of election-related matters to judges by the Judge President of the High Court, has led to limited confidence in judicial impartiality on behalf of stakeholders. This was further compounded by a number of controversial judgments related to elections. Some 55 applications were filed to the courts, dating back several months before the proclamation of the elections and up to election day. Despite some claims that they were frivolous and politically-motivated, it should be stressed that ZEC was vulnerable to legal challenges not only because some provisions of the Electoral Act are not fully in line with the letter and the spirit of 85 There were even some urgent chamber applications filed to compel the High Court to hear applications that were already pending before it. In addition, a ruling of the High Court dismissed an application for a declaratory order compelling ZEC to comply with its constitutional obligation of transparency in the exercise of its operations, citing its lack of jurisdiction to intervene in ZEC’s functions in the absence of illegality, which further limited the protection of the electoral rights of citizens. 40