10 IRI/NDI Zimbabwe International Election Observation Mission Final Report of the ruling party. State-owned media showed systematic and extreme bias in favor of the ruling party. The ZEC established a Media Monitoring Committee, but it was largely ineffective in identifying offenses and in enforcement, and therefore did not affect coverage. Overall, social media was more balanced than traditional media, but the social media environment was negatively affected by hate speech and disinformation, including attacks against female candidates and an excessive focus on personalities over the substantive issues concerning voters. Zimbabwe has an active civil society that was engaged in the electoral process. CSOs conducted voter education, mobilization drives for voter registration and Election Day participation, peace campaigns to combat electoral violence and intimidation, and election observation. Several CSOs, including the Election Resource Center (ERC), the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), ZimRights and the Counselling Services Unit (CSU), monitored various aspects of the electoral process, while the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa – Zimbabwe (MISA-Zimbabwe) conducted extensive media monitoring of election coverage. Election Day and Announcement of Results Zimbabweans came out on July 30 and voted in great numbers. Voter turnout was approximately 85 percent and demonstrated the populace’s desire for democratic governance and enthusiasm to participate in the electoral process. The polls were administered in general accordance with prescribed procedures, and the environment was peaceful. Both MDC Alliance and ZANU-PF had party agents present at almost all polling stations and citizen observers deployed widely across the country. In the densely populated urban areas of Harare, there were long lines at some polling centers with confusion among voters about where to vote, resulting in high numbers of voters being rejected and not permitted to vote. In addition, citizen observers reported high-levels of assisted voting nationwide, which could have compromised the secrecy of the ballot. The process was seriously marred on August 1, two days after voting, by excessive use of force and tragic loss of life. Delays by the ZEC in reporting presidential results led to opposition supporters protesting in Harare. Initially, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) responded, but later ZDF soldiers were deployed and opened fire on opposition protesters with live ammunition, resulting in 6 people killed and another 14 wounded. In response to international demands, the government established a commission of inquiry. The ZEC released provincial and aggregate presidential results on August 3, showing President Mnangagwa, of the ruling ZANU-PF, with 50.8 percent of the vote and Chamisa, the presidential candidate of the opposition MDC Alliance, with 44.3 percent. A parallel vote tabulation (PVT) by ZESN found ZEC’s announced presidential results to be within a credible statistical range, although the PVT could not definitively determine whether there should be a runoff or not. Beyond the presidential election, the parliamentary results gave the ruling party, ZANU-PF, exactly two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly – the number required to unilaterally amend the Constitution. At the local government level, the MDC Alliance won control of 26 local authorities and ZANU-PF 61 local authorities, with no party winning a majority of seats for two local authorities.