6. OBSERVATIONS 6.1 ZEC preparedness ZEC conducted the BVR exercise within a constrained timeframe. Although ZEC acquitted itself well and was up to the task of leading the BVR process, the time constraints showed up throughout the process in various ways. As the BVR process was not being conducted in an electoral vacuum, the absence of an enunciated comprehensive electoral roadmap, and timeous availing of crucial electoral information, impeded the seamless operation of both ZEC and other electoral stakeholders. For ZEC, the constrained time frame meant that it had less than three weeks to train its people from receipt of BVR equipment at the beginning of September 2017 to the onset of the BVR exercise on the 20th of September 2018. There is little doubt that the 8 September 2017 order by the President to start a new voter registration process in every ward placed ZEC under pressure to execute the exercise. Obliging the President's order, timely, came with costs, including the absence of a proper feasibility study ahead of BVR implementation and limited engagement with stakeholders. The challenges of execution within a constrained timeframe emerged most visibly during phase 1 displays of unpreparedness, including shifting dates and schedules, limited voter education ahead of the process, and as the evidence would suggest, not enough training and practice for ZEC technical people conducting the BVR exercise, as further explained below. 6.2 Logistics: Observer Accreditation ZESN noted that logistical challenges in the BVR process started before the blitz with the accreditation of observers. First, ZEC shifted the dates for observer accreditation a few days before the BVR Blitz began. This late shift led to serious logistical challenges for organisations who intended to observe the process and now under pressure to train and deploy observers..27 ZESN had to appeal to ZEC to make special considerations for alternative registration arrangements, which ZEC, to their credit, obliged. However, the accreditation process was not smooth. For instance, in Harare and Bulawayo, observer accreditation was interrupted as some names of observers that ZESN had submitted to ZEC were missing, while in Gwanda, ZESN observers could not be accredited, as there was no electricity in the area where the centre was located. At other accreditation centres in Marondera and Bindura the centres did not have lamination machines, while in Chinhoyi, the printer malfunctioned. These logistical challenges on ZECs part accrued as costs to observing groups who had to accommodate observers over an extended period, in addition to the already high cost of accreditation at $10 per observer. The net consequence was that some observers failed to commence observation in their respective wards by the time the Blitz ensued on 10 October 2017. 27 See ZESN (2017) Statement On The Changes To The Observer Accreditation Dates. 6 October 2017. Harare 22