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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2002 Presidential & Harare Municipal elections - Index of articles
Citizenship issues
Notice
of Objection - Update #11
Citizenship Lobby Group (CLG)
February 18, 2002
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Magistrate
Court Hearings
People who managed
to lodge their appeals in response to the Notices of Objection have
started to receive notice that they are required to present themselves
for these hearings. The first notices seem to have been handed out
on Thursday Feb 14, 2002. The recipients were required to present
themselves at the magistrate's court the following morning.
Similarly, notices
were served on many people on Saturday Feb 16, 2002 and Sunday Feb
17 requiring them to attend court on Monday 18, 2002.
Legal advice
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) are organising lawyers, at no charge, to
assist people with these hearings. Rosters of attendance need to
be drawn up for these lawyers and to facilitate this, you are asked
to notify ZLHR as soon as you receive notification that you are
required to attend court.
Please call
Harare (04) 251468 and leave
the following information on the answer phone/fax
- Name
- Contact number
- Date on which
you received notice to appear in court
- Date and
time of hearing
- City
- Court (and
location if obscure)
- Court room
What is likely to happen?
Legal advice
is that a postponement should be sought for these appeals on the
grounds that:
- The Registrar-General
needs to be called to provide information on previous passport
applications and other such information being proof of residence
since at least Dec 31, 1985.
- A higher
court is currently deliberating this matter (Judge Garwe has handed
down a judgement in the case of Liz Feltoe who is appealing the
legitimacy of the Notice of Objection she received. This case
is being handled as a class action - ie the judgement will apply
to all others with a similar appeal)
- You have
not been given adequate time to brief legal counsel
NOTE: a voter
may not be struck off the voters' roll until their appeal has been
heard.
Draft statement
A draft
statement has been provided by ZLHR for you to use to secure
a postponement of your hearing. It is included at the end of this
document.
Do I have to go to court once given notice to do so?
Yes. If you
fail to turn up you may be charged with contempt of court.
Don't be fearful
of this procedure. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights are committed
to providing legal assistance to you through this process.
Feedback
from court cases on Feb 18, 2002
By the time our cases were heard, (12.15) Dave Drury had been
sent by ZLHR. Our cases were heard along with two others in court
15. The magistrate and PP were very amenable and Dave did an excellent
job. He managed to get permission to submit our case in writing
on Thursday. He is allowed to appear for all of us and the magistrate
will make a ruling after that. The whole thing was time consuming
but everyone was very pleasant.
Lawyers -
please assist
If you are a
lawyer and are able to assist ZLHR in providing legal counsel in
this regard, please contact ZLHR as a matter of urgency - Harare
(04) 251468
What does
Schedule 3 section 3(3) of the Constitution actually say?
Note that the
Constitution of Zimbabwe can be viewed and downloaded from the NCA's
website at www.nca.org.zw.
Schedule
3
(Section
38 and 39)
Qualifications
for Members of Parliament and Voters
3
Qualifications and disqualifications for voters
(3) Any person
who is registered on the electoral roll of a constituency shall
be entitled to
vote at an
election which is held for that constituency unless—
(a) he has
then ceased to be a citizen of Zimbabwe; or
(b) he is
then, in accordance with the provisions of subparagraph (2),
disqualified for registration; or
(c) in the
case of a person who was registered on the electoral roll by
virtue of qualifications referred to in subparagraph (1)(b),
he has ceased to be so qualified.
[Subparagraph as substituted by s.14 of Act No.14 of 1996 -
Amdmt No.14.]
What does
the Electoral Act have to say?
PART VII
OBJECTIONS
TO REGISTRATION OF VOTERS
Objections
by constituency registrar
(1) If
a constituency registrar has reason to believe that—
(a) a
claimant is not entitled to be registered; or
(b) a
claimant is not entitled to be registered on the voters’ roll
on which he has claimed to be registered; or
(c) a
voter registered on a voters’ roll is not qualified for registration
on that voters’ roll;
he shall send
to the claimant or voter, as the case may be, written notice of
objection to which a form of notice of appeal shall be annexed:
Provided
that no such objection shall be taken or notice sent during the
period between the issue of a proclamation referred to in section 38
or 39 and the close of polling at the election to which such proclamation
relates.
(2) A notice
of objection in terms of subsection (1) shall be in the prescribed
form and shall set forth—
(a) the
grounds of objection; and
(b) that,
unless notice of appeal is given within a time stated therein,
being not less than seven days, or the constituency registrar,
on representations made by the person to whom the objection
relates, withdraws his objection, the claim will be rejected
and the claimant registered on the appropriate voters’ roll
or the voter’s name struck off the voters’ roll, as the case
may be.
(3) If—
(a) notice
of appeal is not duly given or is withdrawn or the constituency
registrar does not withdraw his objection, the constituency
registrar shall reject the claim, register the claimant on the
appropriate voters’ roll or strike the voter’s name off the
voters’ roll, as the case may be;
(b) notice
of appeal is duly given—
(i) the
constituency registrar shall, unless he withdraws his objection,
forthwith set down the objection for hearing before a designated
magistrate of the province in which the claimant or voter
resides; and
(ii) the
designated magistrate shall appoint a day and place for the
hearing, the day so appointed being not more than 30 days
after the date of receipt of the notice of appeal.
(4) The
constituency registrar shall give written notice to the appellant
of the day and place appointed for the hearing.
(5) A notice
of appeal shall be accompanied by the sum of $50 as a deposit.
(6) The
appellant may withdraw his appeal on written notice to the constituency
registrar and—
(a) if
the objection has been set down in terms of subsection (3)
for hearing, the constituency registrar shall notify the designated
magistrate of such withdrawal; and
(b) the
sum deposited in terms of subsection (5) shall be forfeited
and the money paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund unless
the constituency registrar is satisfied that there was good
reason for the appeal and the withdrawal thereof and has authorised
the refund of such sum.
Your rights
Permanent residence
is an implicit part of citizenship. Prior to renunciation in the
latter part of 2001 you would have been a de facto permanent resident.
Regardless of
the fact that you may have chosen to retain your foreign citizenship
over your Zimbabwean citizenship, you are nonetheless eligible to
vote as evidenced by the following relevant details extracted from
the High Court judgement handed down by Justice Rita Makarau on
January 25, 2002:
- In order to comply with section 28(2) of the Constitution of
Zimbabwe, for the Presidential elections scheduled for 9 and 10
March 2002, the Registrar General shall ensure that there is in
place a common roll.
- The common roll referred to in 1 above, shall contain the names
and such other information as may be necessary, of all persons
who have attained the age of 18 years, are citizens of Zimbabwe
or, since 1985, have been regarded by a written law to be permanent
residents in Zimbabwe and who meet the residential requirements
of any particular constituency or have satisfied him that for
reasons related to place of origin, political affiliation or otherwise,
it is appropriate that they be registered in a constituency in
which they do not reside;
- The Registrar General shall restore to the voters roll of any
constituency all voters who, on or before 18 January 2002, were
on that roll or were eligible but were refused to be on that roll,
who may have lost or renounced their citizenship of Zimbabwe,
but who since 1985, have been regarded by a written law to be
permanently resident in Zimbabwe;
- The Registrar General shall make adequate and reasonable administrative
arrangements for all voters registered on the common roll who
will not be in their constituencies on the polling days, to exercise
their vote
Draft
statement
I refer to the
Notice of Hearing dated .......………......
I received this
notice at …....am/pm on .......………..........the ……..….day of February
2002.
In this regard:
1. I have had
inadequate notice of this hearing.
2. Due to the
lack of proper notice of this hearing I have not been afforded the
opportunity to secure legal representation. I am entitled to be
legally represented. I want to be legally represented.
3. I will require
certain persons to be called to give evidence in this matter including:
3.1 the
Registrar General.
3.2
3.3
3.4
4. I will produce
certain documentary evidence which I have yet to collate given the
lack of notice given to me.
5. I will submit
that the issues of law raised in the matter of L.Feltoe v Registrar
General presently pending before the High Court are all to be decided
in this matter and this matter should be postponed pending the outcome
of that matter.
6. I reserve
my right on obtaining legal advice to apply to have this matter
referred to the High Court as a stated case or to the Supreme Court
sitting as a Constitutional Court. Accordingly I believe that this
matter should be postponed accordingly.
Visit the CLG
Fact
sheet
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