Aliens Still Face Hurdles To Register To Vote

Aliens are still facing hurdles to register to vote for the upcoming 2018 polls. 

(BULAWAYO), 17 January 2018 - A bulk of citizens of foreign descent, known here as "aliens" are still facing hurdles to register to vote in the ongoing biometric voter registration (BVR) exercise.

This emerged yesterday during a community voter sensitization exercise held in Sizinda and Tshabalala surburbs which are some of the city's most ancient townships predominantly inhabited by "aliens".

Zimbabweans of foreign descent have in the past been facing challenges to vote in the country's general elections.

However, late last year, the office of the Registrar General announced that "aliens" will be registered to vote in the 2018 polls.

However, yesterday it emerged that most ‘aliens were facing challenges to register to vote because of their failure to acquire long birth certificates which are required for registration to vote.

"The issue of long birth certificates came out strongly during the road show as a number of people approached the legal desk manned by Tineyi Mukwewa from Abammeli Human Rights Lawyers for legal advice," Habakkuk Trust, a local rights group said in a statement Wednesday. 

The pro-democracy group said numerous aliens endured the pain of obtaining long birth certificates as the process at the Registrar's office was cumbersome prompting some of the affected people to give up.

"Failure to obtain these key documents disenfranchises people of foreign descent from participating in electoral processes," the group said.

Efforts to get a comment from the Registrar's office concerning the plight of people of foreign descent did not yield results until the time of publication.  - by our community reporter.