Stakeholder confidence in the impartiality of the ZEC over time Number of reports received 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 May 13 - May 26 Yes - a lot of confidence May 27 - June 9 Some confidence June 10 - June 23 June 24 - July 7 No- very little confidence generally Figure 2: Stakeholders’ confidence in the impartiality of the ZEC over time As depicted in the graph above, the level of confidence that stakeholders had in ZEC was on an increase during the month of May. The trend changed with stakeholders’ confidence decreasing between June and 7 July 2018 as the election date drew closer. Some of the developments that eroded confidence in the Commission include questions on the voters’ roll health, unavailability of the voters’ roll before the sitting on the nomination court and concerns surrounding the printing of the ballot papers. Voter education campaigns ZESN LTOs reported the visibility of voter education campaigns in their various constituencies. Over the reporting period, 171 reports gave examples of voter education campaign that they witnessed in their various constituencies while 109 reports showed that there were no voter education campaigns. According to the reports, ZEC voter education campaigns were the most visible. Most of the reports (136) indicated that ZEC was leading in providing voter education, followed by political party candidates (76); Civil Society Organisations (37); Faith Based Organisations (22); Community Based Organisations (17); and local government (4). The voter education campaigns focused on inspection of the voters’ roll; candidate nomination; election date; polling station locations; how to mark the ballot; secrecy of the ballot; and making an informed choice; among other issues. Further, the reports revealed that there were deliberate efforts to have the voter education campaigns target 3 REPORT ON PRE-ELECTION POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT AND OBSERVATION OF KEY ELECTORAL PROCESSES