In 2008 ZANU PF won seats in ten constituencies where the MDC-T and MDC-N candidates combined won the majority of votes. In one constituency MDC-T won the seat where two ZANU PF candidates competed but together won the majority. Also in 2013 the MDC formations were not able to enter a tactical co-operation during the elections, neither for the National Assembly nor for the presidential election. With the mixed electoral system a co-operation would be somewhat more complicated that in a pure FPTP election, since the votes in the FPTP election also count in the List PR. The competition this time led to more lost seats for the MDC parties. If they had not been competing and the voters had voted for only one MDC candidate, they would have won another fourteen seats in the following constituencies: Chitungwiza South, Kadoma Central, Masvingo Urban, Lupane West, Nkayi North, Tsholotsho South, Gwanda North, Matobo North, Matobo South, Umzingwane, Bulilima West, Mangwe, Kwekwe Central and Zvishavane-Ngezi. ZANU PF did not lose any seats by fielding two candidates in the 2013 elections. Province MDC-T Zanu PF MDC-N Bulawayo 4 1 1 Harare 3 3 0 Manicaland 2 4 0 Mashonaland Central 1 5 0 Mashonaland East 1 5 0 Mashonaland West 1 5 0 Masvingo 2 4 0 Matabeleland North 3 3 0 Matabeleland South 2 3 1 Midlands 2 4 0 Total 21 37 2 The higher loss for MDC this time was partly due to the margins not being in their favour, which they were in 2008, see below. Table 10: The official seat distribution as published by the ZEC for the List PR race for the National Assembly The List PR seats for the National Assembly, the Senate and for eight province assemblies were distributed according to the votes won by the parties nominating lists in the constituencies, added up to province level. There was no threshold for the distribution of seats among the parties. In Bulawayo the results calculated based upon the detailed results do not match the official distribution of seats. There may be several explanations for this, but the most likely is that the official calculation has taken into account only the results for one candidate per party. Some parties did have two candidates in some constituencies. In most provinces it made no difference if one added the votes of both candidates or just counted in the one with the highest number of votes, but in Bulawayo it made a difference for the National Assembly and the Senate results. The Constitution states in Article 124 (1) (b) that the distribution is “based on the votes cast for candidates representing political parties in a general election for constituency members in the provinces.” The Electoral code defines a constituency candidate in Section 45B: “’constituency candidate’ means a candidate for election as a constituency member,” and Section 45 C (5) states: Province Bulawayo MDC-T 72,693 Zanu PF 30,290 MDC-N AKE ZAPU 20,967 380 3,066 Harare 224,285 169,272 22,964 Manicaland 167,820 263,856 14,414 Mashonaland Central 37,040 335,895 7,641 Mashonaland East 73,336 321,787 12,943 Mashonaland West 88,241 281,262 10,321 Masvingo 94,059 295,190 14,194   Matabeleland North 88,089 82,281 17,269 4,957 3,803 Matabeleland South Midlands Total for lists 49,095 81,582 18,600 126,689 283,835 18,043 1,021,347 2,145,250 157,356 380 11,826 Table 9: The votes for the five parties running for List PR seats in the National Assembly. When a party had two candidates in the same constituency, the votes are added to the party result. The numbers are based upon The Herald and Sokwanele. The votes for the five parties registering lists for the women’s List PR race for the National Assembly are shown in Table 9 and the official distribution of seats is shown in Table 10. 40 “The formula prescribed in the Eighth Schedule for the election of party-list candidates is calculated on the basis of the total number of valid votes cast for all the constituency candidates in the electoral province concerned, excluding any valid votes cast for constituency candidates— (a) not belonging to any political party; and (b) belonging to any political party which has opted not to field any party-list candidates for the Senate, National Assembly or provincial council, as the case may be, in the electoral province in question.” The most reasonable interpretation seems to be that the results of all the candidates running for a party that has nominated candidates for the List PR race shall be added up in the calculation. That does not seem to have happened, however. In Bulawayo the party ZAPU had two candidates in four constituencies. The party had no chance of winning a proportional seat in the province but it still had an effect on the 41