Following the lodging of the notice of withdrawal, the Chief Registrar of the court announced that by direction of the Chief Justice the court would sit on 19 August. On 20 August, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku handed down the unanimous decision of the Constitutional Court dismissing Mr Tsvangirai’s election petition. Even if Tsvangirai had withdrawn the petition they stated that the court had to make a decision in the case of the presidential election. The decision said: “1. THAT the Zimbabwe Presidential election held on 31 July 2013 was in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe and in particular with the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13]; 2. THAT the said election was free, fair and credible. Consequently, the result of that election is a true reflection of the free will of the people of Zimbabwe who voted; and 3.THAT Robert Gabriel Mugabe was duly elected President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and is hereby declared the winner of the said election.” 15 General Assessment When assessing the elections, it may be useful to group the issues in three areas: i) The problems known to the parties as being unresolved before the elections, such as media and security. ii) The problems falling under the authority of the Registrar General. iii) The problems falling under the responsibility of the ZEC. MDC-T did not seem to wish to risk that elections would not be held within reasonable time by insisting on creating a fair media situation before the elections. Security sector reforms and a review of the ZEC staff had also been mentioned in the roadmap sponsored by SADC, but neither was conducted. Probably MDC-T felt confident that they would win the elections and that they could deal with these issues later. The election date was disputed but when the rather strange decision of the Constitutional Court on the election date discussed above was confirmed all parties participated in the elections. The Intimidation of voters before the elections was probably not worse that in 2008 when MDC-T won, but it may have been more subtle. The tactics may simply have been more efficient in an environment which was normalised compared to the extreme situation of economic chaos and an MDC-T that was seen as a victim of political violence and persecution. The problems with the voters’ registers can hardly be seen to be unintended mistakes. The difficulties in registering in the cities, the bussing of voters and the lack of transparency by not giving out electronic copies of the register timely and accurately must have been part of a plan. In addition, the possible fraud with issuing registration slips after the registration deadline and even on election day made the process less credible. 54 The ZEC did a lot of good preparations and the actual voting and counting was conducted in a correct manner with a few exceptions. The ZEC was very eager not to disenfranchise any legitimate voters. When they tried to find solutions they also increased the possibility for fraud. These decisions turned out to be doubtful, in particular the decision to let those who had registered to vote for special voting vote if they had not voted during the special voting, and the decision on voting based upon the registration slips only. When the decisions were taken and the practice was questioned ZEC should have initiated a review of the practice and asked the court to make the material available for scrutiny. Instead the MDC-T petition did not lead to the materials being released, and we do therefore not know to what extent there was fraud on election day. The ZEC was also responsible for the procedure for assisted voting. To what extent this gave room for undue influence on voters by them or by local persons with authority is not possible to say. However, the ZEC published statistics showing an unusual high degree of assistance. 16 Recommendations for Future Elections In addition to creating an environment free of violence, intimidation and threats, the following improvements should be made in order for elections in Zimbabwe to meet universal and regional criteria for credible elections: • T  he two-round majority system for the presidential election should be written into the Constitution and not be subject to change by a simple majority in parliament. The time for a runoff should be set relative to the election day for the first round. • The voter registers need a full overhaul, where all those who are not registered can effectively be enrolled and where duplicates are removed and deceased persons are removed within reasonable time. • The distribution formula for the List PR races should be changed from the largest remainder method to Sainte-Laguë. • As long as the system of letting the FPTP vote count even in the List PR races continues, it must be made clear that votes for all candidates for a party in the FPTP race running in a province should count in the distribution of seats. • The number of seats for the National Assembly in the List PR race should be made proportional to the population in the provinces to ensure equal voting rights to the principal chamber. • The List PR race for women to the National Assembly should be made permanent. • The List PR elections should be conducted by separate ballots, not by recounting the FPTP votes of the National Assembly election. • The details regarding the consequences if a candidate withdraws from the race before a presidential run-off should be written into the law. 55