[{"bbox": [82, 104, 1146, 240], "category": "Text", "text": "elections should be viewed as a system and a process rather than an event; start early to build consensus on the required reforms; and establish domestic and international partnerships to promote these reforms. This was also confirmed by the mid-term evaluation of the previous electoral support action which recognised that the EU full-fledged support to ZEC, at a time when there was little appetite among development partners to directly engage with state institutions, was an audacious bet that proved instrumental to key improvement."}, {"bbox": [86, 256, 327, 289], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2. Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [82, 326, 1146, 435], "category": "Text", "text": "The electoral management system remains biased in favour of the ruling party and its independence is undermined by the involvement of the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in the approval of regulations adopted by the Commission. Recommendations by several electoral observer missions, including the EU EOM, who monitored the elections in 2018, have so far not been implemented by Zimbabwean authorities."}, {"bbox": [82, 458, 1146, 620], "category": "Text", "text": "**Legal framework**⁶: The Electoral Act was initially adopted in 2004 and has since undergone a series of amendments, the last revision being passed on 28 May 2018, which was very close to the time of election and not in accordance with best practises. Although the Electoral Amendment Act 2018 contains some advances in relation to the previous law, another revision ought to be done in order to align its provisions with the new Constitution, especially the provisions related to the constitutional right to vote, voter registration, accreditation of observers and the independence of ZEC."}, {"bbox": [82, 644, 1146, 806], "category": "Text", "text": "**Constituency delimitation**⁷: The Constitution notes that ZEC needs to conduct a delimitation of the electoral boundaries once every ten years, after a population census, to ensure that no constituency or ward should have 20 % more or fewer registered voters than the other constituencies or wards. The constituency boundaries remain unchanged since the 2008 elections and there are significant variations in the size, partly due to an important rural-urban migration and proliferation of new settlements. The linkage of the delimitation exercise to the census does carry risks of delays partly outside the control of ZEC."}, {"bbox": [82, 830, 1146, 939], "category": "Text", "text": "The basis of the delimitation exercise is the *voters roll*. Civil society conducted an audit on the voters' role which identified a number of problems and mistakes, but did not bring into question the overall integrity of the roll. The capture rate of registered voters by district shows a few anomalies, including under-representation of urban areas compared to rural areas⁸."}, {"bbox": [82, 962, 1146, 1045], "category": "Text", "text": "The 2018 election results announced by ZEC contained some errors and lacked adequate traceability. The *result management system*⁹ needs to be strengthened and better explained to all stakeholders to enhance the transparency, verifiability and integrity of the elections."}, {"bbox": [82, 1068, 1146, 1201], "category": "Text", "text": "The *media landscape* in Zimbabwe is highly polarised and dominated by state-owned or government controlled media, especially in rural areas, leading to imbalanced coverage in favour of the ruling party. Since December 2020, the Zimbabwe Government, through the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), has however licensed a total of 14 licensed community radio stations and 6 campus radio stations which provides an opportunity for enhancing access to information¹⁰."}, {"bbox": [82, 1227, 1146, 1310], "category": "Text", "text": "The *partisan role of traditional leaders*¹¹ through involvement in campaigning, including intimidation and influencing voters, has remained a serious problem in 2013 as well as 2018. No effective mechanism has been introduced to sanction partisan behaviour."}, {"bbox": [82, 1334, 1146, 1495], "category": "Text", "text": "The 2013 Constitution emphasises the government's responsibility to foster *gender balance* and promote full participation of women in all spheres of society. However, the level of women's representation in government, parliament and local councils remains relatively low. Whereas the 2013 elections meant a significant increase in women representation in the National Assembly (from 16% to 35%), the 2018 elections led to a drop to 31%. Only 25 of the 210 directly elected seats in the National Assembly were won by women. The women's quota in Parliament, which is set to expire after the 2023 elections, has been proposed to be extended in a constitutional amendment bill."}, {"bbox": [72, 1545, 324, 1567], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ EU EOM recommendation 1"}, {"bbox": [72, 1569, 324, 1591], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ EU EOM recommendation 2"}, {"bbox": [72, 1593, 355, 1615], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁸ EU EOM recommendation 7,8,9"}, {"bbox": [72, 1617, 335, 1639], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ EU EOM recommendation 18"}, {"bbox": [72, 1641, 341, 1663], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ EU EOM recommendation 13"}, {"bbox": [72, 1665, 340, 1687], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ EU EOM recommendation 11"}, {"bbox": [1051, 1690, 1158, 1714], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 20"}]