BY CHARLES LAITON

The judge said aliens should go and be registered as prospective voters by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) provided that they bring along with them their identity documents endorsed alien coupled with a birth certificate and proof of residence.

The granting of the court order came after human rights lawyer Denford Halimani, of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, petitioned the High Court on behalf of Harare resident, Sarah Kachingwe alongside two political parties, MDC-T and MDC, seeking an order to compel Zec to register the so-called aliens as prospective voters for the 2018 general elections.

The Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshmen Ncube-led political parties joined forces and challenged Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede’s order that aliens must renounce their dual citizenship as a prerequisite to be issued with new identification cards to enable them to register as voters.

The two political parties, together with Kachingwe, filed an urgent chamber application citing Zec, Mudede, then Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu and Zanu PF political party as respondents.

In the application, the political parties together with Zec “unanimously agreed that a citizen, who is able to produce an identification card showing district of origin and a birth certificate confirming that such citizen was born in Zimbabwe or in the Southern Africa Development Community region and proof of residence should, by operation of law, be freely allowed to register to vote as they would have sufficiently established their qualification to vote by virtue of proving that they were Zimbabwean by birth.

The political parties further said “such people need not prove or do anything else in order to qualify to register as prospective voters”, adding, “If such people bring their identification cards, irrespective of whether they are endorsed ‘alien’ and birth certificate and proof of residence, they are entitled to be registered by the first respondent (Zec) as a prospective voter.”

This was the ex tempore ruling delivered by Munangati Manongwa J today the 29th of November 2017 at around 12:00pm in Chambers in the matter between Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirai and 2 Others v Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and 3 Others HC 10623/17:

“Having considered the documents filed of record consisting of the application, the opposition and supplementary documents filed by both parties, and having listened to submissions by legal practitioners and also having been able to listen to submissions directly elicited from representatives of the 2nd Respondent, I am going to deliver my order. The reason is that the right to vote is one of the fundamental freedoms a person can enjoy in their lifetime and can only be enjoyed when one is registered as a voter. The importance therefore of this issue requires a full judgment so today I am only going to give an order with full reasons to follow. It is a very important case and I should be able to justify whatever decision I make. In that regard I grant the following relief which is a final order:

IT IS HEREBY DECLARED THAT:

1. Any person born in Zimbabwe who is of or over eighteen (18) years with an identification card endorsed “Alien” and a Birth Certificate showing that such person was born in Zimbabwe and at least one of the parents of such person was born in Zimbabwe or from the SADC region with proof that he or she was ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe on the relevant publication date in 2013 is entitled to be registered by the 1st Respondent to vote without any impediment or additional requirement other than requirements relating to all people.

2. The 2nd Respondent shall not charge any such person described in paragraph 1 above to replace Identification particulars endorsed alien during the period during which the biometric voter registration exercise is taking place as per the timelines set out by the 1st Respondent.

3. The 3rd Applicant together with any class of persons in similar predicament be and are hereby entitled to be forthwith registered as voters by the 1st Respondent in the Biometric Voter Registration exercise upon production of the Identification Card endorsed Alien coupled with a Birth Certificate showing that they were born in Zimbabwe to parents from the SADC region or one of whom is a Zimbabwean and proof of residence.

4. There shall be no order as to costs.”

This is the verbatim transcription of what the Judge said.