Harare North MP Sues ZEC After Denial Of Electronic Voters' Roll
Harare North legislator Allan Norman Markham has taken the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to court to force the institution to give him an electronic copy of the national voters’ roll upon payment of the prescribed price of US$200 pegged for a copy.
Markham filed the application on Wednesday with his lawyers Wintertons Legal Practitioners.
In his application, the legislator said he has made several attempts to obtain a soft copy of the document from ZEC but he has hitherto been frustrated.
He further argued that ZEC is bound by the Electoral Act to furnish him or any other citizen with a copy of the voters’ roll in either hard or soft copy upon payment of the prescribed fee. He said in his founding affidavit:
It is important to note that the fees for the voters’ roll in the respective formats are different.
The fee for the hard copy is US$200 plus the printing cost of US$1 per page which results in a total cost of about US$187.000.
This is many times more costly than the electronic copy of the voters’ roll, which is about US$200.00.
Markham also argues that the electronic copy of the voters’ roll is more convenient than the document in hard copy format, saying:
… electronic form is portable and can be easily analysed with relative ease; a hard copy of the national roll would be cumbersome to hold (one hundred and eighty-seven thousand pages) and practically impossible to analyse.
In addition, it takes the respondent 30 days to print a copy of the hard copy before an applicant who has complied with all the conditions set by the Respondent can have it.
So even if one has the money which I must say is exorbitant and unaffordable for many people including myself, you would still have to wait for a minimum of thirty days (30) for Respondent to print it.
The choice, therefore, is to procure an electronic copy is both borne out of its being more affordable and easier to obtain and analyse.
Markham wants the High Court to order ZEC to avail the voters’ roll in electronic form as he requested.
He also wants the court to declare “that the tender by the respondent of a printed version/hard copy of the voters roll is invalid to the extent that it is not in accordance with the request made to it by the applicant of an electronic copy/version of the voters roll”.
ZEC has seven days to respond to the application. | ZimLive
