22 Electoral system and processes 2.11.1 Gender dynamics of nomination It has been argued that party rules affect the way that political parties carry out nomination processes. In most cases, women are not in influential positions in political parties and they remain outside the circle of power, and are excluded from the “allboys” network. The new Constitution introduces quotas for women, with 60 reserved seats in the National Assembly, calculated using proportional representation, and a zebra-system for the 60 Senate seats. The nomination lists provided by ZEC indicate that only 18% of the local council candidates are women. Of particular concern is the fact that, in the National Assembly, women are only contesting in 110 constituencies. A number of factors could have contributed to this. Nomination processes for the 2013 elections were generally competitive across the political party spectrum. Incumbents sought to “protect their turf”, with some seeking to prevent newcomers from participating in the processes. As a result, it was “each man or woman for him/herself”. As the parties are generally unwilling to enter into another IG, they wanted to field perceived strong candidates, and this resulted in all political parties imposing candidates on the electorate, leading to disgruntled supporters taking action. Zimbabwean society is predominantly patriarchal, and it is possible that political parties fielded men in the belief that they had better chances of securing the seats. Women also continue to be relegated to their gendered roles of being child-bearers and care-givers, not made to enter into the political fray. Men are seen as the bread-winners and remain largely in control of the “purse”. Campaign-related costs are prohibitive for most women, and for women to be able to carry out effective campaigns, they would require assistance from the “all-boys’ network”, who will be likely to protect their own interests first. Even when such support has been provided to women candidates, they have then had to deal with and overcome politically-motivated gender-based intimidation and violence that affects them disproportionately from men. For all these reasons, the cards remain stacked against women candidates, and this election has seen them coming off worse than in previous elections in relation to political representation. 2.12 Accreditation of observers ZLHR reiterates that public confidence in electoral processes is greatly enhanced where local, regional and international observers who are well-versed in electoral processes and who are on the ground in large numbers are available to objectively scrutinise the various processes. This helps to ensure transparency and inject confidence into the whole electoral process. Given the fact that there has been widespread doubt about the fairness and integrity of the electoral process in Zimbabwe in the past, including the disputed 2008 elections, it is essential that there be extensive observation of the 31 July 2013election by a wide cross-section of observation teams. The presence of observers100 is essential to help confer legitimacy on the outcome and to provide an objective analysis of claims of fraud or other electoral malpractices. Observers must not 100 The importance of election observers is articulated in Principle 7 of the SADC Guidelines.