In spite of the above reservations, it is nonetheless possible to track some general trends that show shifts in election results since 2000 up to the present elections, as well as other trends. B. ARE THERE PATTERNS TO BE SEEN? 1. OVERALL VOTE COMPARISONS i. General observations Bearing in mind the background of breaches of the law underlying all elections since 2000, the results as formally recorded may not be a true reflection of the will of the people in any election. That being said, a review of the figures since the 2000 election shows certain and differing trends in the votes for the MDCs and for ZANU PF. The election outcome for 2013 should be seen as one in a series of five key elections since the rise of MDC as a significant opposition party in the late 1990s.87 These elections are:  Parliamentary elections in 2000 and 2005 (House of Assembly)  Presidential election in 2002  Harmonised elections in 2008 and 2013 (House of Assembly shown in graph)  In the first 3 elections, there was one united MDC, after which the votes for MDC‐T and that for the MDC (M/N) are shown separately. All non‐MDC‐T opposition votes are totaled, under ‘other parties’ ‐ MDC (M/N), ZAPU, MKD etc. ii. The MDCs and the vote 1. The highest opposition vote for a single party/candidate was in the Presidential election of 2002, with 1,258,401 for Morgan Tsvangirai. 2. In 2000 and 2005, the united MDC vote, and in 2008 and 2013 the MDC‐T vote in the House of Assembly (HoA) – commonly known as the parliamentary election – has remained in the region of slightly more than 1,1 million votes, with very little deviation from this. The variation across the three most recent elections has been within a range of 43,000 votes. 3. However the combined opposition vote was over 1,4 million votes in 2008 and around 1,3 million votes in 2013.                                                                                                                                                                                                  any more light on the intricacies of the vote by constituency or ward than their initial summary report released early in August. Most of the figures quoted in the ZESN report are based on those released by ZEC, without any commentary on whether ZESN found any numerical differences based on their own observers’ reports. 87 Figures are those cited in SPT, Punishing citizens, Silencing Dissent: the Zimbabwe Elections 2008. Source: africanelection,tripod.com/zw.html#2005_House_of_Assembly_Election. Figures for the 2008 Election were taken from www.zimbabwesituation.com/apr3b_html and supplemented with figures from Veritas.   32