Ndiweni petitions UK over Zim diaspora voting rights

Source: Ndiweni petitions UK over Zim diaspora voting rights – NewsDay Zimbabwe

SILAS NKALA/MIRIAM MANGWAYA
DETHRONED Ntabazinduna chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has petitioned United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson to prod him to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa to grant Zimbabwean citizens in the diaspora voting rights.

Ndiweni yesterday confirmed that last week he held meetings with the United Kingdom Houses of Lords and Commons to discuss the issue.

He said he would also take his campaign to all the 54 African Union Parliaments to pile pressure on Mnangagwa’s government to allow diasporans to vote in next year’s general elections.

Ndiweni said he would also engage African political parties, Sadc, European Union, United Nations as well as the Asian bloc as part of his MyRight2Vote campaign.

He told NewsDay that on January 10, he met members of the House of Lords and House of Commons.

“That was followed by another meeting on January 11 again with them. I was there myself as ‘substantive chief’ from Zimbabwe. So we began the discussion regarding the diaspora vote, the human rights for every single Zimbabwean wherever they are, to vote,” Ndiweni said

In 2018, Mnangagwa pledged to extend voting rights to millions of Zimbabweans abroad, but seems to have reneged on the promise three years on.

Last year, then Zanu PF acting political commissar Patrick Chinamasa said the ruling party would not allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote.

An estimated 5,5 million Zimbabweans are believed to be domiciled outside the country as economic and political refugees.