One  could  assume  that  the  time-­‐lag  around  this  will  have  done  huge  damage  in  the  minds  of  many:   thousands  of  voters  have  already  been  forced  to  surrender  their  BVR  information  and  it  is  doubtful,   considering  the  prevalence  of  fear  in  some  rural  areas  of  the  country,  that  any  formal  reports  will   be  made  to  the  police.  It  is  also  doubtful,  considering  the  generally  poor  voter  education  done  over   the  last  few  months,  especially  in  rural  areas,  that  many  will  get  to  hear  about  these  statements  by   ZEC  and  the  ZRP.       A  ZANU  PF  district  committee  member  from  Matabeleland  North  reported  to  us  on  29  January  that   ZANU  PF  had  been  instructed  to  form  structures  from  cell  level  upwards,  whose  primary  intention   was  to  record  serial  numbers  from  BVR  registration  slips  along  with  ID  numbers.  This  was  allegedly   ordered  by  their  seniors  at  the  provincial  level.  They  were  suddenly  told  to  stop  late  last  week,   coinciding  with  the  ZRP  and  ZEC  announcements  that  this  was  a  crime.  The  informant  said  the   practice  had  been  very  widespread, ��especially  in  resettlement  areas,  and  concern  was  expressed   that  those  in  these  ‘BVR  data  collection  structures’  might  now  be  charged  and  arrested,  while  they   had  only  been  doing  what  they  had  been  ordered  by  ZANU  PF  to  do.  We  await  with  interest  to  see   whether  anyone  is  now  actually  arrested  for  this  practice,  considering  how  widespread  it  has  been.       However,  two  weeks  after  these  strong  statements  on  the  sacrosanct  nature  of  the  BVR  slips,  not  a   single  arrest  has  been  reported  in  the  media.  Yet  the  perpetrators  are  well  known  to  communities.   However,  the  coercive  nature  of  the  perpetrators  and  the  vulnerability  of  people  in  small,  rural   communities  makes  formal  complaints  and  arrests  unlikely:       So  far  there  have  been  no  arrests.  The  reason  is  very  simple  -­‐  there  is  no  complainant.  The   reason  there  is  no  complainant  is  that,  in  classic  machine  politics,  it  is  happening  within  a   somewhat  consensual  give  and  take  transactional  environment  where  the  rewards  of   compliance  are  greater  than  the  costs  of  defaulting  and  going  "rogue".82     If  you  report  your  local  headman,  will  you  be  excluded  from  the  food  lists  next  time  rice  arrives  for   distribution?       MDC  Alliance,  Rainbow  Coalition  and  voter  education     Quite  simply,  there  was  almost  no  visibility  of  the  opposition  parties  calling  on  their  voters  to   register.  In  fact,  throughout  2017  running  up  to  BVR,  as  already  indicated  in  this  report,  there  was   adverse  publicity  from  opposition  parties  around  the  process,  with  criticism  of  ZEC  and  the  tender   processes,  as  well  as  around  the  timing  of  BVR.  As  late  as  18  September  2017,  the  MDC  Alliance   was  threatening  protests  and  litigation  against  the  timing  of  the  BVR  roll-­‐out,  claiming  ZEC  was  not   prepared.83  This  did  not  prevent  BVR  from  rolling  out  two  weeks  later  –  and  in  the  face  of  all  the   outcries,  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  opposition  voters  might  be  leery  of  joining  the  process.  It  is   indeed  the  role  of  civics  and  the  opposition  to  be  alert  to  all  possible  attempts  to  subvert  the   electoral  process,  considering  ZANU  PF’s  shocking  track  record  over  the  last  37  years.  It  is  only   because  of  these  repeated  protests,  litigations  and  record  keeping  of  abuses  by  others  that  ZANU                                                                                                               82  Ncube,  Batsani:  How  the  2018  polls  will  be  lost  or  won,  The  Zimbabwe  Independent,  9  February  2018.   https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2018/02/09/2018-­‐polls-­‐will-­‐lost-­‐won/.   83    Mashaya  Blessings:  “MDC  Alliance  threatens  protests  against  BVR”,  The  Daily  News,  18  September  2017.     23