Voting ends in Bikita West

Voting has ended in Bikita West after the people in the constituency cast their ballots for the whole day amid indications the environment was peaceful during voting though the pre- election period was violent.

Heal Zimbabwe reported that in collaboration with the Election Resource Centre (ERC) and Zimrights it  monitored the Bikita West by-election.

"All the 58 polling stations closed at 7pm and the counting of votes has commenced. Heal Zimbabwe had a mobile team that monitored all the 58 polling stations. Apart from the mobile team, Heal Zimbabwe also had 58 trained human rights monitors at every polling station," HZT said.

"Generally, the electoral environment was peaceful with no recorded incidences of overt political violence in the areas visited by Heal Zimbabwe. There was high voter turnout at most polling stations with the majority of voters being women. The by election was however marred by increasing reports of assisted voters, intimidation of voters and compilation of names. There was also a markedly high number of assisted voters."

 Heal Zimbabwe  noted  that such electoral malpractices witnessed in the by election compromise the conditions for a free and fair election. Heal Zimbabwe will produce a more detailed report of the by election.