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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Nominees
for March 2008 elections denied inspection of voters' roll
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 11, 2008
Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights is concerned by the continued harassment of voters
and aspiring candidates by election officials presiding over some
voter inspection centers. ZLHR is aware that several people wishing
to check the voters' roll in preparation for their nomination
as candidate during the 29 March 2008 elections have been denied
their right to do so. ZLHR is also aware that some Zimbabweans,
born in Zimbabwe, to foreign parents, have also been frustrated
in their seeking to register their names for the elections or inspect
the voters roll.
ZLHR is aware that two
prospective candidates, one for local council elections in Ward
7 Mt. Pleasant constituency, and the other in parliamentary elections
for Mt. Pleasant Constituency were denied their right to inspect
the voters' rolls within their constituencies. On the 6th
and 7th of February 2008 Mr. B Chiwola and Mrs T. G. B. Stevenson
Dickey were both denied inspection of the voters roll at Tomlinson
Depot, Alexander Park Primary School and Belvedere Sports Club.
Section 21 (1)
of the Electoral
Act (Chapter 2:13) clearly provides that every voters roll shall
be a public document open to inspection to any member of the public,
free of charge, with the right to make any written notes of anything
contained therein during office hours. This right was denied the
two despite the fact that their success in being nominated to contest
as candidates during the elections requires them to ensure that
they are nominated by voters registered in their constituency. Mr.
Brighton Chiwola was refused this right despite the fact that his
lawyers were present with him and cited relevant enabling provisions
in the Electoral Act. Mrs. Stevenson was told by the elections officer
at Belvedere Sports Club that she would not be allowed to check
the voters roll to confirm her nominators' registration despite
the enabling section in the Electoral Act because the elections
officer had been directed that it be so, by the Registrar-General
of Zimbabwe in his capacity as the Registrar-General of Voters.
Letters of complaint
addressed to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission have also not resulted
in any relief for the two nominees. With only five days left till
nomination day on 15 February 2008 it is clear that the continued
refusal to allow the two nominees to check the voters roll violates
their right as provided for in Section 3 (b) of the Electoral Act,
namely the right to participate directly in the governance of their
country through standing as candidates.
While ZLHR is in the
process of trying to assist the two nominees remedy the violation
of their rights, it strongly condemns such conduct by the electoral
authorities and failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to
act against such violations. ZLHR therefore calls upon the electoral
authorities to immediately allow all Zimbabweans the enjoyment of
their democratic rights as prescribed by the Electoral Act.
Visit the ZLHR
fact
sheet
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