ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections Parliamentary Forum, and non-governmental organisations, such as the SADC Election Support Network and the SADC Electoral Advisory Council.58 In line with recent practice, there were few international groups from outside of Africa and embassies were limited to only five observers per diplomatic mission. Challenges with accreditation In the 2013 Harmonised elections, ZEC decentralised accreditation to the provinces. This process was not without problems. While all the observer lists were approved at the ZEC head office, the actual accreditation took place at the provincial centres. The ZEC head office did not send the lists quickly to the provincial centres which resulted in observers waiting longer periods before being accredited. This process differed significantly to party agents accreditation process where only names are submitted to ZEC and party agents do not have to present themselves which reduced the burden of observation for party agents and increased the burden of observation for domestic observers. ELECTION DAY Election Day preparations began a week before the election with the dispatch of ballot materials to polling stations. In the week before the election ZEC and CSOs accredited with conducting voter education placed several advertisements in the newspapers, on radio and on TV encouraging voters to cast their ballots and informing them about voting requirements. The voter education included showing voters how to vote using sample ballot papers. On voting day queues began forming at polling stations early in the morning. Whilst there were fears about Election Day logistics, these proved to be unfounded as most polling stations were adequately equipped with staff and material when voting began. However, the publication of 65 extra polling stations on Election Day also added to the confusion of where to vote as those who were not aware of the extra polling stations in their constituencies or in their wards stood a good chance of turning up at the wrong polling station. According to ZEC, the ballot papers were printed at two different printing companies, Fidelity Printers and Print Flow printers. It is unclear if there were any checks by the contesting political parties for consistency and quality of the ballots and their authenticity. The commission also printed 8.7 million ballot papers, which was 35 percent more than Zimbabwe’s total voting population of 6.4 million. By 58 ‘‘ZEC accredits 20,00020000 observers’ available at <http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88433:zec-accredits-20-000-electionobservers&catid=38:local-news&Itemid=131#.UfGleY3I2So> 58 | P a g e