High Court to hear prisoners’ application demanding rights to vote

High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi will on 25 January 2022 preside over the hearing & determination of an application filed by some prisoners seeking an order compelling Zimbabwean authorities to allow them to vote during elections.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) representing them say Zimbabwean prisoners have for a long period been disenfranchised from voting.

In the application which was filed in June 2017, but is being heard now after the presiding Judge Justice Clement Phiri passed on in January 2021 after reserving judgment in July 2018, the prisoners want the High Court to issue an order compelling Justice, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba & ZEC itself, to register them on the national voters roll & facilitate their voting on election day.

The prisoners argue that since the period that they had been in prison detention, ZEC had neither carried out any voter education, including voter registration nor enabled prisoners to vote during the several general & by-elections which were held in Zimbabwe.

The prisoners argue that they are asserting their constitutional rights particularly the right to vote in elections & referendums as enshrined in Section 67 (3) (a) of the Constitution.

They argue that they are entitled to exercise their political rights regardless of their status as detainees.

Zwnews