2003. The first election it observed in the country was the Independence elections in 1980. e. International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) The IRI observer mission, led by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and NDI delegation, led by former Central African Republic President Catherine Samba-Panza. The mission comprised of 60 observers. The Nomination Court The Nomination Court sat on the 14th of June 2018 through out the country. The nomination process was generally peaceful. However, as has been the case in previous elections, the voter’s roll remained a contentious issue. ZEC failed to avail the voters roll on time for the sitting of the Nomination Court violating Section 155 (2) (c) of the Constitution which stipulates that ZEC must ensure that all political parties and candidates must have access to all material and information necessary for them to participate effectively. In addition, the Electoral Act in Section 21(1) and (3) explicitly states that “the voters’ roll shall be a public document and within a reasonable time period after calling of an election, the Commission shall provide it in printed or electronic form as the person may request.” Further, the secrecy around the printing of the ballot papers was also a major concern to the contesting parties and individual citizens. Section 52A (a) of the Electoral Act states that ZEC should without delay provide information to all political parties, candidates and observers on, a) “where and by whom the ballot papers for the election have been or are being printed; and b) the total number of ballot papers that have been printed for the election; and c) the number of ballot papers that have been distributed to each polling station” The conduct by ZEC of maintaining secrecy around the printing of ballot papers and the delay in availing the voters roll in time for the nomination court fell short on SADC and the AU guidelines on the conduct of free, fair and credible elections. 19