As of 17 January 2018, ZEC had registered 4,968,975 since the commencement of the BVR Blitz. Over the same period 84,714 have been turned away for various reasons including Aliens without long birth certificates, having no identity documents (IDs), defaced IDs, and being underage, among other reasons. Political Environment ZESN continues to receive numerous reports of intimidation of registrants by political players and traditional leaders who continue to record serial numbers of voter registration slips under the pretext that they will be able to establish voting trends of persons whose serial numbers they have recorded. An example of where this trend was reported is Chivi Central where a ZANU-PF councilor in Ward 16 was asking registrants in his ward to submit the serial numbers of their registration slips to the village heads. Moreover, villagers are being told that if they do not comply, they will not have access to food aid. ZESN has since requested ZEC to publicly denounce these intimidatory actions and demystify the serial numbers and their inability to determine the choice of vote. ZESN also calls upon the police to arrest such culprits. Recommendations: i. ZEC needs to increase publicity of the mop up exercise. Given that most registration centers are at schools, school children can be used as a source of information dissemination. ii. ZEC needs to liaise closely with the Register General’s department so that the process of issuing national identity documents can be synchronized with the itinerary for the BVR kits. iii. ZEC should consider opening sub district registration centers as permanent registration centers during the BVR mop-up, in addition to other high traffic places such as growth points and bus terminus. iv. ZEC should convene the Multiparty Liaison Committees in districts where reports of intimidation of registrants have been made. v. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission should investigate the reports of intimidation in particular the recording of voter registration slips’ serial numbers by political actors. PROMOTING DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE ZESN Chairperson Mr Andrew Makoni: +263772234891 ZESN Director Mrs Rindai Chipfunde Vava: +263712415902 zesn2011@zesn.net, info@zesn.net