In  2000,  voters  had  a  simple  voting  choice  –  ZANU  PF  or  MDC  with  no  other  viable  party  political   alternatives.  Since  then,  the  number  of  political  parties  has  grown  with  each  election:  these  new   parties  have  at  times  been  a  product  of  splits  in  the  MDC,  and  in  Matabeleland,  each  split  has  seen   the  loss  of  significant  and  respected  Ndebele  leadership  from  the  main  MDC  party.  The  2018   election  presented  voters  with  a  never-­‐seen-­‐before  proliferation  of  parties  and  candidates.  This   was  nowhere  more  obvious  than  in  Bulawayo,  in  which  the  average  number  of  House  of  Assembly   candidates  was  the  highest  nationally,  at  17  per  constituency,  with  Nkulumane  fielding  23   candidates.  The  presidential  election  was  also  contested  by  23  candidates,  although  apart  from   Chamisa  and  Mnangagwa,  who  both  had  more  than  2  million  votes,  only  5  other  candidates   achieved  more  than  10,000  votes  nationwide,  and  all  of  these  received  fewer  than  100,000  votes   individually.23       Graph  8     Winning  Zanu  PF  votes  compared  with  "combined  MDC  votes"  and    all  "non   Zanu  PF  votes"  in  7  closely  contested  Matabeleland  constituencies,  2018   14000 11875 12000 10570 10000 8000 7924 6767 6163 7875 8800 8607 8398 7312 6814 6550 6182 5890 5202 5752 6000 4419 4381 6130 6369 4687 4000 2000 0 Lupane  West Lupane  East Nkayi  South ZPF Bulawayo   South MDCs Gwanda  North Gwanda  South Matobo  South all  non  ZPF                                                                                                                   23  Cumulatively,  however,  this  vote  added  up  to  4.7%,  which  was  key  in  allowing  Mnangagwa  to  show  a  clear  advantage   over  Chamisa  -­‐  although  whether  ED’s  vote  added  up  to  more  than  50%  remains  an  area  of  conjecture  in  some  arenas.       18