Electoral reforms or not.....gone is the diasporan vote
Zimbabweans in the diaspora continue to be unrecognised by their homeland. The ruling by the constitutional court comes as no surprise, for most of us in the diaspora as Zimbabwe continues to deny us the right to vote. The Herald on 20 July 2017 reported that Chief Justice Malaba defended Section 23(3) of the Electoral Act. “Section 23(3) required that a voter be resident in the constituency in which he or she was to vote for purposes of being qualified for registration on the voters’ roll for that constituency. “If the voter became absent from the constituency in which he or she was registered as a voter for a continuous period of 12 months, his or her name had to be removed from the voters’ roll of that constituency,” reads the judgment. The judgement effectively rendered millions of Zimbabweans on the voters roll with a notification that they will not take part in the electoral process in 2018. The current ruling party welcomes this judgement as it nullifies millions of votes whi...