HIGH Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe, has dismissed an
application filed by a visually-impaired potential voter, Abraham Mateta, who
had petitioned the court seeking an order to compel the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec) to print braille ballot papers to visually-impaired potential
voters to exercise their voting rights in next week’s polls.
Through his lawyers Innocent Maja and Justice Mavedzenge,
Mateta filed an urgent court application in the High Court on May 11, 2018
seeking an order to compel Zec to print some ballot papers in braille, to print
the template ballot and/or to provide tactile voting devices for the visually
impaired potential voters.
But Justice Hungwe dismissed the matter, saying Zec had
indicated that it was going to put in place measures that would ensure the
visually-impaired would be catered for.
“The law permits the visually-impaired voters to bring
their trusted persons to assist them in casting their votes….there is consensus
that the visually-impaired persons bring with them a person of their choice to
the voting places and if nobody is present to assist, election officials will
be present to render assistance to them in terms of the Electoral Act,” he
ruled.
In his application, Mateta had argued that visually
impaired eligible voters had the right to cast their vote in secret or by
secret ballot as provided for under Section 67(3) of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Justice Hungwe also dismissed another
application that had been filed by a civil society organisation, Veritas
alongside Valerie Ingram-Thorpe and Brian Desmond Crozier, seeking to compel
Zec to conduct elections in a transparent manner.
Veritas had argued that Zec was required by the
Constitution to promote transparency in all its operations in terms of section
3 (2) (g) and section 233 (d) of the Constitution, hence its petition seeking a
declaratory order that Zec should avail, for public scrutiny, all its standard
operating procedures, processes, policies and internal manuals relating to the
conducting of elections, including the 2018 harmonised polls.
But Justice Hungwe dismissed the application, saying a
court has no jurisdiction to intervene in Zec’s administrative decisions,
adding the granting of a declaratory order by the courts was discretionary.
Newsday
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