Judgment No. CCZ 3/14 8 Const. Application No. CCZ 64/13 the section advanced by the respondents, an interpretation which, if adopted, will amount to a violation of the constitutional right of the special voters to vote in the general election. As will be shown below, s 81B(2) is capable of a construction which does not offend against the Constitution. INTERPRETING THE STATUTORY PROVISIONS Various rules have been formulated to assist the Court in the interpretation of statutes. One of these often referred to as the cardinal rule of construction, is the literal rule which requires that the words of a statute must be given their ordinary, literal and grammatical meaning. 1 However, the object of such interpretation or construction is to ascertain the intention of the legislature in enacting the provision concerned and, even where the words employed in the statute are clear and unambiguous, a Court may depart from the ordinary effect of the words in order to remove an absurdity and to give effect to the true intention of the legislature “if to do otherwise would lead to an absurdity so glaring that it could never have been contemplated by the legislature, or where it would lead to a result contrary to the intention of the legislature as shown by the context or by such other considerations as the Court is justified in taking into account.”2 INTENTION OF PARLIAMENT The task before this Court is therefore to ascertain the intention of Parliament in enacting the provision under scrutiny. Was it intended that in circumstances such as obtain in casu the successful applicants for special voting would be denied their constitutional right 1 2 See G.M COCKRAM Interpretation of Statutes 3ed at p 36 Cockram supra at p 46