8.7 Political Violence and Intimidation Political violence had been considerably reduced in the period leading up to these elections compared to other elections held after 2000. All observer missions agreed that the campaign and the elections were held in a peaceful environment. A Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) had been established by the GPA as a tool for reconciliation and for creating an environment conducive for future elections. They were able to build up capacity in all provinces before the elections and the three main parties operated in joint teams in order to resolve political tension and prevent violence. This probably contributed to a calm election environment. A further description of the JOMIC follows below. There were still reports of intimidation by people of authority locally. Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) reported on the 31 July 2013: “Political tolerance also remained low with polarisation characterising the environment as the state media often magnified this intolerance. Intimidation, allegedly mostly committed by ZANU PF supporters, received significant media attention, although there was little done to curb its occurrence. Several reports noted that the country’s political landscape is still blighted by fear that citizens have associated elections with violence to the extent that many are reluctant to participate in elections at all. ZESN’s observers reported in their regular reports that in some areas people were afraid to express their true opinions, or even to associate with ‘wrong’ elements, including reading newspapers of their choice. These freedoms of association were further violated by people being forced to attend ZANU-PF meetings and buy party cards, in some cases as a precondition to receiving food, loans and other necessities. For some non-governmental organisations and community-based groups, working on soft issues the environment was relatively safe. Those organisations working in health and education were able to operate without much hindrance. For those working in the field of political education and civil rights, the situation was significantly different. These groups faced challenges, especially as they were sometimes denied police clearance to conduct workshops and seminars. Employees and volunteers working for several of these organisations were arrested. Cases of harassment of civil society activists continued during the countdown to the elections and persist in the post-election period. A number of these arrests centred on the fact that groups were alleged to have been conducting voter education illegally, without the consent and supervision of ZEC.” 8.8 Ballot Printing The commission printed 8.7 million ballot papers, which was 35 per cent more than the number of registered voters of 6.4 million. This is more than what is common in countries where the voters need to vote in wards where they are registered, and the turnout in various areas is quite predictable. On the other hand, if the process of accounting for the material at polling stations, the transparency throughout the voting, and the immediate counting at the polling stations work as per the procedures, it should not be possible to 28 actually misuse such a surplus. Nevertheless it did cause suspiciousness, which should be avoided at later elections. 8.9 Postal Voting Postal voting for diplomats and those stationed outside the country took place in 42 diplomatic missions in the week beginning on 22 July. ZEC indicated that there were only 262 applications for postal voting. ZESN was invited to observe the opening of the special vote and postal vote envelopes. 8.10 Special Voting Act No 3 of 2012 amended the Electoral Act to include provisions for special voting allowing electoral officers and members of a disciplined force performing security duties during the election to vote prior to election day. Statutory Instrument 84 of 7 June 2013 gave detailed regulations for such special voting. The dates for special voting were set to 14 and 15 July. On 11 July the ZEC chairperson Justice Makarau was quoted in The Herald to say: “About 69 000 officers from the Zimbabwe Republic Police form the bulk of 87 000 people expected to cast the first votes of Election 2013 under the special voting facility. A total of 15 000 officials from ZEC, 2 000 from the Zimbabwe Prison Service and 140 officers from the Zimbabwe National Army are expected to vote next Sunday and Monday.” According to the interview the special voting was to take place at 209 polling stations countrywide. MDC-T challenged the figure and the Minister of Finance said that the number of staff on the payroll of the police force was just over 40,000. The first day of special voting was slow due to lack of ballot papers. ZEC stated in a press release after the first day that due to challenges to the nomination court decisions, the design of ballot papers had been delayed. On the first day only 6,092 had voted. On 23 July Justice Makarau said to The Herald: “Out of the 63,268 voters comprising ZEC officials, police officers, soldiers and prison officers who were registered to vote using the special voting system on July 14 and 15 this year, only 37,108 managed to exercise their voting rights while 26,160 failed due to logistical challenges.” Immediately after the special voting days, the chairperson Morgan Komichi of MDC-T went to the High Court seeking an order nullifying the special voting procedure. On Friday 19 July Justice Chiweshe dismissed the MDC-T application. On 23 July the ZEC filed an application with the Constitutional Court in order to allow the 26,160 persons to cast their vote on election day. In the law it was clearly stated that those having applied for a special vote should be deleted from the voter registers and not 29