• Section 78 ensures that there is verification of postal ballots so that any discrepancies can be identified and dealt with. • Also intended to safeguard the integrity of the process, the procedure requires that whilst the postal ballots must be counted together with the ordinary ballots they must be kept in separate packages – including those rejected or in respect of which rejection is objected to (Section 79). Section 80 deals with offences relating to contraventions of the special procedure of postal voting. • Whilst the simplification of the special procedure, especially the adoption of email communications, which will help to expedite the process, is a welcome development it is apparent that it remains too restricted and unavailable to other voters who may be outside the country but still entitled to vote. It is not just persons on government duty who find themselves outside the country on critical voting days. There is no good reason why, if postal voting is available to those on government duty, it cannot be available to them too. For example, it discriminates against those in business who may have to be away to do business during election days. To give a simple example, if a government delegation on a trade trip to China includes businessmen and government officials, the latter would be able to use postal voting whereas the business persons would not have the same facility and yet they are all pursuing the same cause in the national interest. Postal voting does contain risks but it should be more widely available than it is at present. • Exclusion of the Diaspora: Also worth noting is that the restriction clearly excludes many Zimbabweans based abroad (the Diaspora). If there were no restrictions, the registered voters in the Diaspora would potentially be able to vote in this way. Indeed, there has been much clamour for the so-called Diaspora vote in recent years, given the large number of Zimbabweans living abroad but this campaign has come to nought. The restrictions to postal voting confirm that the door is currently closed to the Diaspora unless they are on government business. It has already been noted above how Zimbabwe lags behind other countries in the region such as South Africa and Mozambique which permit Diaspora voting and in the case of Mozambique, have taken active steps to register voters in the Diaspora to ensure that they exercise their right to vote. Zimbabwe needs to adopt a similarly open approach to ensure it has a truly representative government. 33