ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections the draft. This trend continued during the election campaign. For example, during the first voter registration exercise conducted in May, observers lamented the lack of voter education and information. The commission deployed only two voter educators per district who could not have been expected to deliver voter education adequately throughout the areas of their jurisdiction. As a result, many members of the electorate did not have adequate information about the requirements for registration. At the time, the commission had not accredited any other organisations to conduct voter education. The arrest of several members of civil society on charges of conducting voter education illegally created uncertainty about ZEC’s commitment to ensuring that the electorate received adequate and accurate information about all aspects of the electoral process. With the end of the first voter registration exercise however, the ZEC’s voter educators conducted a door-to-door campaign in an attempt to educate voters in every ward about the electoral process. However, given the high numbers of voters turned away from polling stations for being in the wrong ward it would appear that this voter education exercise failed to reach a significant number of voters. The commission placed advertisements in the media encouraging voters to vote, and informed them about the identification documents required. It is not clear that voter educators deployed in the wards also educated the voters about the need to vote in the right ward. In any event, even if they had, there was no provision for voters to inspect the voters’ roll after the end of the voter registration exercise, which made it impossible for voters to check their registration details. ZEC also accredited a number of civil society organisations to conduct voter education alongside the commission. These organisations, collectively with the commission, delivered voter education on the need to vote and urged voters to turn out in their numbers. Despite the commission’s advertisements however, it appears there was a clear need to provide more specific information on the changes that had taken place, as this would have prevented some of the problems arising that resulted in huge numbers of voters being turned away on Election Day. Organisations accredited included Ark Zimbabwe (Mvuma), Casa Masvingo Entertainment and Sports Association (Masvingo), Citizen Participation Forum (Harare), Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (Harare), Civic Education Network Trust (Harare), Gweru East Development Trust, Habakkuk Trust (Bulawayo), Institute for Young Women Development and Musasa Project. Others included the National Disabled Persons Trust, The Women Trust, the Wisdom Institute International Zimbabwe, the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, Zimbabwe 43 | P a g e