Zec says diasporans cannot vote in 2018 unless they come back home

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has confirmed that unless the Electoral Act is ammended, non-resident Zimbabweans will not be voting in the 2018 presidential elections and will only have to come back home to do so.

The announcement by ZEC comes at a time when opposition parties have been staging protests demanding electoral reforms, including enabling non-resident Zimbabweans to vote from their countries of residency. Addressing journalists in Harare on Tuesday, ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau said without amendment of the Electoral Act, citizens living outside the country would need to come back home to cast their vote on election day.

She also said all government staff working outside and at Zimbabwean embassies would have to return home and present their bio-metrics to ZEC for them to be able to vote. However most of the Zimbabweans living in the diaspora do not possess proper documentation which makes it a risk for them to come back to Zimbabwe.