ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections The predominant reason for this was the mistaken belief on the part of the electoral officials that the observers names should have been on the list provided to them by ZEC. For instance, at Mambale Secondary School in Mangwe, Matabeleland South, a ZESN observer was denied permission to observe during the period 6:00 am to 7:30 am by the presiding officer who wanted the observer to produce a letter confirming that he was assigned to that polling station. These problems were largely resolved through the intervention of ZESN Constituency supervisors on Election Day. ZESN however, recommends that the roles of observers be made clearer to officials during the training conducted by ZEC. By far the largest number of incidents reported related to problems occurring during the voting process, with 280 such incidents being reported (36 per cent). Some illustrative examples are shown in the Appendix 1 to this report. The subsequent table shows the distribution of incidents reported by category and geographic location. Table: 13 LOCATION Total Observer not permitted to observer at any time 5% (41) Serious problems during set up of polling stations Serious problems during voting Serious problems during counting Serious problems away from polling stations Serious problems during collation intimidation Other Incidents Observer Security threatened Zimbabwe 771 8% (59) 36% (280 9% (69) 3% (22) 2% (19) 5% (40) 29% (227) 2% (14) Bulawayo 10 % (76) 0% (0) 9% (7) 30% (23) 8% (6) 4% (3) 0% (0) 9% (7) 39% (30) 0% (0) Harare 11% (86) 1% (1) 7% (6) 29% (25) 15% (13) 0% (0) 2% (2) 7% (6) 37% (32) 1% (1) Manicaland 19% (144) 8% (12) 10% (15) 42% (60) 10% (14) 1% (1) 3% (4) 5% (7) 18% (26) 3% (5) Mashonaland Central 12% (91) 8% (7) 5% (5) 48% (44) 5% (5) 4% (4) 2% (2) 3% (3) 20% (18) 3% (3) Mashonaland East 8% (60) 10% (6) 5% (3) 23% (14) 8% (5) 7% (4) 7% (4) 5% (3) 32% (19) 3% (2) Mashonaland West 8% (64) 3% (2) 9% (6) 36% (23) 8% (5) 2% (1) 3% (2) 11% (7) 28% (18) 0% (0) Masvingo 4% (34) 6% (2) 18% (6) 21% (7) 3% (1) 3% (1) 12% (4) 0% (0) 35% (12) 3% (1) Matebeleland North 4% (31) 13% (4) 10% (3) 39% (12) 3% (1) 6% (2) 0% (0) 3% (1) 23% (7) 3% (1) Matebeleland South 9% (73) 5% (4) 5% (4) 36% (26) 10% (7) 7% (5) 1% (1) 3% (2) 33% (24) 0% (0) Midlands 15% (112) 3% (3) 4% (4) 41% (46) 11% (12) 1% (1) 0% (0) 4% (4) 37% (41) 1% (1) 64 | P a g e