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Zim expats want to vote
01/02/2005 11:40 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabweans living abroad are asking the Supreme Court to overturn a decision by President Robert Mugabe's government to bar them from voting in parliamentary elections in March, newspapers said on Tuesday.
The Britain-based Diaspora Vote Action Group filed a suit in the court on Friday seeking to overturn the "illegal" decision taken late last year, the state-run Herald newspaper said.
The group is seeking an order stating that all Zimbabwean citizens, regardless of their place of residence, should be declared "eligible voters in all parliamentary and presidential elections" while arguing that the government decision was unconstitutional.
"The current exclusion of Zimbabweans in the diaspora in the participation of the country's political sphere is ... not only discriminatory but has no basis in law," it said.
There are an estimated 3.5 million Zimbabweans living abroad, many of whom left their country in the wake of the political turmoil from controversial elections in 2000 and 2002 that has left the economy in tatters.
Ghost voting
The suit, filed by six Zimbabweans living in Britain, also pointed to elections held last year in nearby countries where citizens living overseas had been allowed to vote.
"Botswana, which held its general election in the latter part of 2004 was able to organise for its citizens living in Zimbabwe to cast their vote at the embassy in Harare," it said.
"Mozambicans in the recent general elections were able to fully participate despite being resident out of the country."
Late last year, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said that Zimbabwean expatriates could not vote as the "constitution does not allow people not residing in any constituency to vote," The Herald reported.
Chinamasa also said that allowing overseas-based Zimbabweans to cast their ballot could lead to "ghost voting" and further argued that even if they were allowed to vote, Zimbabwean officials could not register them.
"This was because both the political and public service leadership have been banned from travelling to such countries as Britain and the United States," The Herald said.
There is a travel ban on Zimbabwean leaders following flawed elections in 2000 and 2002 which the opposition and rights groups say were marred by violence, fraud and intimidation, a charge angrily denied by the government.
President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, in power since the southern African country's independence from Britain in 1980, hopes to improve its showing in the upcoming polls.
The date of the election is expected to be announced this week and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will also decide whether or not to contest the polls.
The elections will be a litmus test of Zimbabwe's pledge to a southern African regional grouping to stage free and fair elections.
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