Below is a summary of ZESN observations of the site validation exercise. Observations i. The Assessment: The Commission made considerable efforts to make the assessment process fair for both bidders. Its team of assessors alternated between the vendors allowing the two teams to observe the same processes. ii. Technical Support: Both bidders proposed to partner with local firms, who in all likelihood would provide most of the required ongoing technical support during the voters’ roll out of the voter registration exercise, but ZEC had not assessed the local partners' competencies. iii. Data Capturer & Registration Speeds: During the Test, it was clear that the data capturers used for mock exercise had varied computer literacy, affecting the speed at which they captured registrants’ details. As the operators became more acquainted with the machines, the average rate of registering voters was reduced drastically from around 12 minutes to an average of five minutes per voter. This demonstrated that with appropriate recruitment and sufficient training of data capturers, the desired target of registering about 20 people per hour per kit could be met. iv. Back up documents: Training included taking pictures of supporting documents like the ID documents and the registration form. While the webcams used by both bidders met the requirements outlined in the bid, the operators needed more training on how to operate them. Most of the documents were captured out of focus resulting in pictures of the backup documents that were not clear and would be difficult to use during the claims and objection phase of the voter registration exercise. The webcams used by both bidders were of high quality taking high-resolution passport-sized photographs in different ambient settings. The Mock Voter Registration exercise The registration kits for the two teams were used in mock voter registration exercises at Mabvuku High School (urban setting) and Murape Primary School, in Seke (rural setting). 150 students were selected to participate in the exercise, but will not be part of the voting 2018 population as they would be less than 18 years of age by 31 December 2017. The mock registration included:  Registering voters with visual, physical impairments,  Double registrants,  Transferring of voters,  Removing and deleting of a record, and  Voters with missing fingers. ZESN noted that ZEC organised the planning of the mock registration well. However, on the first day, the instructions to the operators of the BVR kits seemed to have been different as the operators were not 32