ZESN continues to be alarmed by the unusually high number of people that request assistance when intending to cast their vote. ZESN urges the Commission to develop inexpensive mechanisms to document the literacy levels of voters when they register to vote. This will enable the Commission to gather the required statistics which can enable the Commission to develop voter education material that meets the unique needs of this category of voters. Consequently the number of assisted voters will be reduced and the provision for assisted voters will hopefully be insulated from abuse. ZEC should also share the disaggregated statistics of assisted voters to allow for a clear distinction between illiterate voters and visually impaired voters and other categories of special needs groups. 9. ELECTION PETITIONS Electoral petitions are part of the electoral justice landscape in Zimbabwe. The Electoral Court was established in terms of Electoral Act Chapter 2:13, 161 (as amended), and has exclusive jurisdiction to hear appeals, applications and petitions in terms of this Act; and to review any decision of ZEC or any other person made or purporting to have been made under this Act. The Court’s mandate covers a wide range of potential cases, from voter registration disputes to election petitions by unsuccessful candidates. The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in February 2015 announced the appointment of four High Court judges (Justices Chinembiri Bhunu, Tendai Uchena, Andrew Mutema and Martin Makonese) as judges of the Electoral Court. The appointments are for the six-month period 16th February until 15th August 2015. ZESN, however, notes that the Electoral Court Judges have been sitting unconstitutionally because section 183 of the Constitution does not permit the appointment of Judges to sit on more than one court. In addition, there is need to regularise the potential conflict of interest that may arise if the Chairperson of ZEC remains the Secretary of the Judicial Services Commission. In Zimbabwe there are a number of institutions that play significant roles in facilitating the effectiveness of our electoral justice system. The institutions include, but are not limited to, ZEC, The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), Electoral Courts and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). During the Mudzi by-election these institutions played a very minimum role with the exception of the police which provided security for the elections. This can be attributed to the fact that the Mudzi West by-election was poorly contested. 10. ELECTION DAY OBSERVATIONS The Network deployed 11 short term observers for the by-election comprising static observers based at some of the ward and constituency collation centres. In addition, two teams of mobile observers were deployed. ZESN’s observation efforts conform to the Electoral Laws of Zimbabwe and the report is informed by ZESN observer’s findings. 12 | P a g e