the potential of compromising the independence of the Commission. The ZHRC’s reluctance to be part of the Special Investigation Committees was anchored on the principle that the Commission should undertake investigations independently whilst taking sole responsibility for the outcomes of its investigations. Therefore, the Commission was satisfied when the Section was amended through the Electoral Amendment Act. It should be noted that the amendment did not preclude the ZRP from assigning Special Liaison Officers which the ZHRC noted were stationed at the Provincial Offices around the country and had the responsibility of addressing election related cases. The ZHRC made submissions on the amendment of the Electoral Act to define its role in elections as that of monitoring and not observing. This is because the Constitution of Zimbabwe gives the Commission powers to monitor the human rights situation in the country, including during elections and to investigate cases of human rights violations in Zimbabwe during the same period. This issue was however not addressed as the Commission was given an observation role in the Amended Electoral Act. 3.2 Biometric Voter Registration Since 2017, the Commission carried out a number of election related monitoring activities, commencing with the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) process. The ZHRC welcomed the decision by ZEC to introduce the BVR and to involve various stakeholders in the BVR Site Validation Tests. In addition, ZEC in an effort to improve transparency requested stakeholders, including ZHRC, to comment on the BVR Draft Regulations. The ZHRC conducted the monitoring of the BVR process in three (3) Provinces in the months of October and November 2017. These were Harare Metropolitan Province, Masvingo Province and Matebeleland South Province. ZHRC monitored a total of 49 BVR Centres across 17 constituencies. These were 11 centres in Harare Metropolitan Province, 18 centres in Masvingo Province and 20 centres in Matebeleland South Province. Furthermore, when the BVR exercise had scaled down at the beginning of 2018, ZHRC continued to monitor the process at District Offices in all the 10 Provinces. Page 19 of 55