was still in session. The amendments were not controversial though. The harmonised elections needed to elect a senate, house of assembly, the councils and and the president of the republic. The voter registration process and the voter register itself were subject to heavy criticism. In its transitional articles the new Constitution left the responsibility for the voter register to the Registrar General for this first election before transferring it to the ZEC. The ZECwould supervise the process but in practice the work was carried out by the Registrar General. The Constitution stated that there should be a one month special registration drive ahead of the election. This was carried out from 10 June to 9 July 2013. The process was criticised for the slow performance in the cities and for a lack of transparency. 6,187,003 names were on the voters roll for the 2013 elections, but there were serious criticism of the roll18 The political environment appeared to have significantly improved compared to the previous years. More so, there were no areas where certain candidates could not move freely or where candidates were not previously permitted to campaign. However, the state media remained patently partisan. State TV and radio were extremely biased in their coverage of the campaign and the State TV had in practice monopoly on political reporting. There were newspapers supporting both ZANU PF and the MDC formations. The Herald, a government newspaper, was mainly a spokes channel for ZANU PF and not the government as a whole. The media situation as a whole did not provide for a level playing field for all contestants in the elections. Political violence had been considerably reduced in the period leading up to these elections compared to other elections held after 2000. All observer missions agreed that the campaign and the elections were held in a peaceful environment. A Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) had been established by the GPA as a tool for reconciliation and for creating an environment conducive for future elections. They were able to build up capacity in all provinces before the elections and the three main parties operated in joint teams in order to resolve political tension and prevent violence. This probably contributed to a calm election environment. The harmonised elections of 2013 were won by ZANU PF resoundingly and SADC’s accepted the outcome, therefore marking the end of the brand of 18 RAU (2013), An Audit of Zimbabwe’s 2013 Voters’ Roll. July 2013. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit; RAU (2013), Key statistics from the June 2013 Voters’ Roll. Governance Unit, Research & Advocacy Unit. 5 th July 2013. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit;. 7