ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections the figure of 3.4 million only represents those who managed to cast their vote and doesn’t include those who actually turned out to vote but were turned away at the polling station as already shown. While ZEC justifiably explained the reasons for these voters being turned away (wrong documents; trying to vote in the wrong ward; etc.) this did not fully explain the anomalies. For example some voters were unable to vote at the same polling station that they had voted at in 2008 and all previous elections. This can be explained by the fact that they were now restricted to the ward where they are registered. This could have been addressed had ZEC conducted voter education to explain to people the need to verify the ward where they were registered and had voters been given enough time to inspect the voters’ roll. For the assisted voters, registering at 5.9 per cent of the vote, it is questionable whether a country with a high literacy rate like Zimbabwe should have somany assisted voters. Allegations were made for this election that voters had been forced to pretend illiteracy then vote for ZANU-PF. In the absence of the victims stepping forward, these allegations will be hard to prove, as victims will not speak out fearing retribution. The results also show what seems to be waning support for the MDC parties. The MDC-N did not win a single seat in the National Assembly although it did manage to obtain some seats in the legislature through the Senate and the women’s quotas. The MDC-T lost half its seats in the National Assemblyas significant inroads were made into its former strongholds of Matabeleland South where all the seats went to ZANU-PF and in Masvingo and Manicaland Provinces. The council elections results indicate that ZANU PF is now dominating the country’s rural and urban councils after winning 1,493 wards against MDC-Ts 442. MDC-T’s grip on urban local authorities has been significantly weakened with ZANU PF winning most wards in Marondera, Bindura and Chinhoyi, and sharing by half wards in Kwekwe and Plumtree. The Ncube led MDC won 14 wards, while Dabengwa managed to win one ward. It is important to note that there were ties in some of the local authority wards and a run-off for these has been scheduled for 11 September 2013. The affected wards include Kadoma Municipality ward 4, Kusile RDC ward 5 and Mutasa RDC ward 30. Overall, various explanations have been suggested for the dramatic changes in the results of the 2013 elections compared with those of March 2008, and these can be divided into two categories. The first is the alleged manipulation of the voter registration process and the voters’ roll. There were allegations that the disenfranchisement of urban voters through the incomplete voter registration process was a deliberate ploy to muzzle the urban vote, which has traditionally gone to the MDC-T. Some also alleged that the ballot boxes had been stuffed. But given the presence of observers and the fact that 97per cent of all polling agents signed the V11 forms at the polling stations, it is unlikely that ballot stuffing took place at the polling stations, or any of the collation centres. 71 | P a g e