voting cards, or simply by voting in more than one polling station within a ward. JOMIC reported incidents of people handing out voters cards to voters and they reported that five persons were arrested in Harare South on such allegations. The problem was both that voters who were registered were turned away and that people who should not have been allowed to vote, actually voted. After the elections ZEC published a figure of 304,890 voters who were turned away, or 8.7 per cent of those voting. However, this figure also includes those who might have gone to another ward and who were allowed to vote there. The figure is anyway high. There were no figures available indicating how many voted with registration slips only. Constituency Total valid votes Turned away Per cent of valid votes Bulawayo Harare Manicaland Mashonaland Central Mashonaland East Mashonaland West Masvingo Matabeleland North Matabeleland South Midlands Total19 130,594 423,093 455,735 380,880 419,404 387,528 405,352 196,254 156,129 433,669 3,388,638 11,388 64,483 42,525 18,517 20,464 56,733 29,292 14,424 11,521 35,543 304,890 8.7 15.2 9.3 4.9 4.9 14.6 7.2 7.3 7.4 8.2 9.0 Table 4: Voters turned away on election day by province sett note 1919 There was evidence that voters were bussed in from the country side, and possibly even from neighbouring countries to vote in selected constituencies in the cities where MDC-T was strong. That could give ZANU PF seats in the National Assembly which they otherwise would not get. Some of the people being bussed in might also have registered in the city constituency. Due to lack of formal residency documents people can in practice register wherever they want. This liberal practice accommodates the mobility of the workforce. However, it was also used in the elections to direct voters to certain constituencies that they did not have any connections with. The procedures aimed at preventing double voting by those registered to vote in the special voting varied. In some places, those who had already voted had been struck off the lists, but in other places they had not, leaving a risk for double voting by some 30,000 voters. 19 Counting only valid votes, not all voting. 11.3 Assistance to Voters Voters needing assistance due to physical disabilities or illiteracy could be helped by a person of their choice. If they did not request to be assisted by a certain person, the polling staff should assist them in the presence of the police. There were claims that this possibility was used to intimidate voters to vote in a particular manner, and the statistics showed an unusual high share or assisted voters. According to the ZEC 5.9 per cent of the voters were assisted. This is high in a country with a high literacy rate. Constituency Bulawayo Harare Manicaland Mashonaland Central Mashonaland East Mashonaland West Masvingo Matabeleland North Matabeleland South Midlands Total20 Total valid votes Assisted Per cent of the valid votes 130,594 423,093 455,735 380,880 419,404 387,528 405,352 196,254 156,129 433,669 3,388,638 2,313 4,089 31,277 34,044 27,974 23,166 34,950 14,314 9,462 25,312 206,901 1.8 1.0 6.9 8.9 6.7 6.0 8.6 7.3 6.1 5.8 6.1 Table 5: Voters assisted on election day by province sett inn note 2020 11.4 Police Presence As mentioned earlier, the presence of the police in the polling stations was a controversial legal issue. The Electoral Act seemed to allow for their presence and so did the manual for polling staff. Apart from the possible intimidation of voters being assisted in the presence of a police officer, there were no reports that police officers did more than keeping order in and around the polling stations. 12 The Count and Tabulation 12.1 The Presidential Election The presidential election results were published on 2 August, well within the constitutionally prescribed deadline of five days after election day. It pronounced the incumbent President, Robert Mugabe, the winner. Table 6 below shows a breakdown of the results for the presidential elections as published by the ZEC. 20 Counting only valid votes, not all voting. 36 37