provided the latter with the contact numbers of the voters. ZEC formally denied these allegations, dismissing them as baseless. Political parties and candidates violated the law by campaigning beyond the prescribed period. The law provides for a ‘cooling-off period’ within which it is prohibited for political parties and candidates to campaign.40 Some political parties and candidates did not comply with the notice issued by the ZEC advising all political parties and candidates contesting in the Harmonised Elections to cease campaigning at midnight on 28 July in accordance with paragraph 7 of the Fourth Schedule to the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13]. A day before the election, some candidates were still campaigning. This was reported for a number of parties and candidates, for example the PRC candidate for council elections in Mt Pleasant and both ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance in Gutu South constituency. During this period the former president of Zimbabwe appeared at a press conference where he declared his preferred presidential candidate for the 2018 presidential race. On the other hand the presidential candidates for both ZANU-PF and MDC-Alliance also followed suit with their own press statements. All three statements were widely regarded as violations of ‘cooling off period’. 10.3 Funding of Political Parties To the extent that it determines the degree to which parties effectively execute their activities, including mounting meaningful campaigns, political party funding is a key issue in the electoral process. In general, and in Zimbabwe in particular, the source of and criterion for political party funding have been contentious issues. For Zimbabwe, the law sets a threshold of representation in parliament as the basis for political party eligibility to receive public funding.41Further, foreign funding of political parties is prohibited in terms of Section 6 of the Political Parties Finance Act. In this context, it is parties that are eligible for public funding that should be expected to be financially privileged and fitter. Of the political parties in Zimbabwe, it is only ZANU-PF and the MDC-T that qualified for public funding. Over the years, ZANU-PF has been accused of further unfairly benefiting from the tax payers money in a situation of State-party conflation and/or by virtue of being the incumbent.42 Judging by the material used for campaigning by political parties, ZANU-PF was financially more advantaged. The MDC Alliance experienced funding challenges as confirmed at one point by the MDC-T Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora.43 40 The “cooling-off period” is a period when campaigning is disallowed and election advertising must not be published or displayed. In Zimbabwe it is 48 hours before polling. 41 By law (the Political Parties Finance Act) any political party that garners at least 5% of the vote in the previous election is eligible to receive public fees 42 Masunungure 2006: Regulation of Political Parties Zimbabwe: Registration, Finance And Other Support 43 DailyNews 30 January 2018 63 | P a g e