'Half Zimbabwe's voters in foreign countries'

'Half Zimbabwe's voters in foreign countries'

• Website: Diaspora Vote Action Group

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• Zimbabwe hints at postal voting for 3,5 million exiles

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• Zim opposition demands voters' roll review

• MDC cries foul as constituencies erased

• MDC: 'Delimitation an exercise in deception'

• Zimbabwe voters' roll 'inflated by a million'

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• Sparks fly over voters' roll tampering

• Zimbabwe bars election observers

• 'Mugabe's compliance the litmus test for SADC protocol on democratic polls'

By Staff Reporter

HALF of Zimbabwe's eight million potential voters are outside the country and will not be voting in next month's parliamentary elections, a Zimbabwean political group claimed in Pretoria on Thursday.

Daniel Molokele of the Crisis Zimbabwe Coalition told a news conference: "More than 2 million, up to 3 million, are in South Africa alone."

Molokele's Johannesburg-based organisation includes members of the Zimbabwean diaspora.

He said these people were away from home "out of the sheer force and brutality that is the legacy of the displacement of refugees".

"The South African government, I am sad to say, is living in denial (about this).

"The sad part of it is that these elections in Zimbabwe are not to shape our destiny, but an opportunity for rape, killings... to create more graves.

"Whichever government is elected on March 31 it will be a minority regime," Molokele said.

Molokele spoke as Zimbabwe's Supreme Court reserved judgement in a case brought by exiled Zimbabweans seeking to vote in the March 31 parliamentary polls.

The Zimbabwe government opposes the application, fearing the move could lead to more ballots for the opposition.
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