Tsvangirai, Ncube challenge Mudede

THE Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC-T and Welshmen Ncube's MDC have jointly approached the High Court, demanding that Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede stops forcing "alien Zimbabweans" to renounce dual citizenship as a prerequisite to be issued with new identification cards to facilitate their participation in the biometric voter registration exercise.

The parties together with a Harare woman, Sarah Kachingwe, filed an urgent chamber application on Monday, citing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), Mudede, Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu and Zanu-PF as respondents.

The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.

In the application, the parties argued that a citizen who is able to produce an identification card showing district of origin and a birth certificate confirming that such citizen was born in Zimbabwe or from the Southern African region and proof of residence, should by operation of law be freely allowed to register to vote as they would have sufficiently proved their qualification to vote by virtue of proving that they are Zimbabwean by birth.

The parties added: "If such people bring their identification cards, irrespective of whether they are endorsed ‘alien' and birth certificates and proof of residence, they are entitled to be registered by the first respondent (Zec) as a prospective voter.

"Specifically, the first respondent is required to register any such person described above as a prospective voter with immediate effect pending the final determination of this matter on the return date."