Similarly,  with  the  House  of  Assembly  vote,  two  parties  dominated:  the  MDC  Alliance  and  ZANU  PF   won  208  out  of  210  constituency  seats,  with  ZANU  PF  winning  144  of  these  and  MDC-­‐A  winning  64.   An  Independent  and  a  National  Patriotic  Front  candidate  won  the  other  two,  confirming  that   Zimbabwe  remains  effectively  a  two-­‐horse  race.24  Taking  into  account  the  women’s  proportional   vote  in  the  House  of  Assembly,  ZANU  PF  was  proportionally  awarded  35  seats,  MDC  Alliance  24  and   MDC-­‐T  was  awarded  1  seat.       Graph  9     Five  smaller   parties   in  Matabeleland  and  their   respective  %  votes  2018 2.96% 2.70% 2.60% 2.65% 1.55% 1.34% 1.36% 1% 1.44% 1.20% 0.60% 0.85% 0.80% 0.40% 0.10% Total  ZAPU Total  MRP Total  PRC %  total  Byo %  total  Mat  N Total  NPF Total  ZIPP %  total  Mat  S   Votes  for  ZAPU,  Mthwakazi  Republic  Party  (MRP),  People’s  Rainbow  Coalition  (PRC),     National  Patriotic  Front  (NPF)  and  Zimbabwe  People’s  Party  (ZIPP)     The  existence  of  more  than  a  score  of  smaller  parties,  while  they  failed  to  gain  representation  in   the  House,  may  have  cost  the  MDC  Alliance  dearly,  where  these  smaller  parties  managed   collectively  to  gain  a  key  percentage  of  votes.  This  percentage  varied  from  one  constituency  to   another.  Certainly  in  Matabeleland,  the  split  opposition  vote  once  more  meant  multiple  seats   were  lost  on  a  divided  vote,  in  particular  on  the  vote  divided  between  the  MDC-­‐A  and  MDC-­‐T,  led   by  Thoko  Khupe.25  Altogether,  the  vote  outside  of  the  two  main  parties,  ZANU  PF  and  MDC-­‐A,  was  a   notable  factor  in  the  Matabeleland  provinces,  as  shown  in  Graphs  1,  3  and  4,  also  Graphs  8  and  9.     In  Bulawayo,  the  vote  for  parties  other  than  MDC-­‐A  and  ZANU  PF  was  a  crucial  25.4%.  For  the  first                                                                                                               24  Electoral  petitions  currently  before  the  courts  may  shift  the  exact  allocation  of  these  seats  between  MDC-­‐A  and   ZANU  PF,  although  from  years  of  experience  this  seems  unlikely,  with  the  courts  either  never  ruling,  or  ruling  in  favour   of  ZANU  PF  in  such  petitions.     25  The  split  between  Khupe  and  Chamisa  followed  the  death  of  Morgan  Tsvangirai  early  in  2018,  when  both  claimed  the   legitimate  right  to  succeed  him.  Instead  of  proceeding  to  a  congress  to  resolve  the  issue,  Chamisa  relied  on  a  vote  by   the  executive  of  the  party,  which  may  well  have  been  unconstitutional,  leading  to  Khupe’s  split.  Khupe  was  attacked  at   Tsvangirai’s  funeral,  and  there  was  other  violence  between  the  two  factions  in  Bulawayo  during  2018.  Khupe  herself   held  a  congress  to  re-­‐elect  leadership  for  what  she  claimed  remained  the  legitimate  part  of  the  MDC-­‐T.       19