Executive Summary
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) observed the public inspection of the
provisional voters’ roll which was conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) from 19-29 May 2018. The findings in this report are primarily informed by the Long
Term Observers (LTOs) that ZESN deployed to the National Assembly Constituencies
throughout the country.
ZESN deployed 210 LTOs to track political developments in all the National Assembly
Constituencies in Zimbabwe. During the Inspection of the provisional voters’ roll, ZESN
deployed LTOs who visited 693 Inspection Centres (ICs) across the country during the
inspection and making 909 visits in total during the process.
Some ZESN observers were denied access to 108 centres because inspection officials
mistakenly regarded the BVR accreditation cards as having expired when in actual fact
the Commission had extended their validity to cover the inspection period. In addition,
the public’s ability to check the list for non-residents, dead people or multiple registrants
was hampered by the fact that the voters’ rolls were not posted outside the ICs.
Generally, the political environment was calm and relatively peaceful during the
observation period. However, observers noted that at 18% of centres visited, there were
accessibility challenges for persons with disabilities. Furthermore, essential materials,
such as polling station voters’ rolls and registration forms were missing or insufficient at
up to 30% of the ICs during the initial two days.
Findings from observer reports indicated that the number of people coming to check
their details was very low – only 6 per hour on average. In addition, the number of voters
missing from the voter’s roll was difficult to determine given the low number of people
who physically presented themselves for inspection.
Political party agents were observed to be largely absent from the centres visited by
ZESN LTOs.
It was noted that some polling stations had voting populations that were fewer than 100
people on their voters’ rolls, for instance, Willsgroove Tent in Bulawayo East has 17
voters, Ngozi Mine in Bulawayo Central has 19, and Pfitsaro Primary School has 96 voters.
This has implications on the secrecy of the vote, as it may be easy to target people
especially in light of the polling station based voters’ roll. ZESN also implores the ZEC to
proportionally apportion registered voters’ at polling stations.
Recommendations
Based on its observation of the inspection process, ZESN makes the following
recommendations:
1