Judgment No. CCZ 4/18 19 Case No. CCZ 3/18 under s 56 of the Constitution, on the basis that s 72 of the Electoral Act bestows the privilege of voting outside the boundaries of Zimbabwe to a certain class of people –State employees – in a manner that excludes them from voting and is also ‘highly discriminatory’ against those based in the diaspora who are not State employees or their spouses. The applicants allege this also violates their right to protection of the law. Section 56 of the Constitution provides, in part: “56 Equality and non-discrimination (1) (2) (3) (4) All persons are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. Women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. Every person has the right not to be treated in an unfairly discriminatory manner on such grounds as their nationality, race, colour, tribe, place of birth, ethnic or social origin, language, class, religious belief, political affiliation, opinion, custom, culture, sex, gender, marital status, age, pregnancy, disability or economic or social status, or whether they were born in or out of wedlock. A person is treated in a discriminatory manner for the purpose of subsection (3) if— (a) they are subjected directly or indirectly to a condition, restriction or disability to which other people are not subjected; or (b) other people are accorded directly or indirectly a privilege or advantage which they are not accorded.” The right to equal protection of the law was discussed by ZIYAMBI JCC in Nkomo v Minister of Local Government, Rural & Urban Development & Ors 2016 (1) ZLR 113 (CC) when the learned judge, at 118H-119B found: “The right guaranteed under s 56 (1) is that of equality of all persons before the law and the right to receive the same protection and benefit afforded by the law to persons in a similar position. It envisages a law which provides equal protection and benefit for the persons affected by it. It includes the right not to be subjected to treatment to which others in a similar position are not subjected. In order to found his reliance on this provision the applicant must show that by virtue of the application of a law he has been the recipient of unequal treatment or protection that is to say that certain persons have been afforded some protection or benefit by a law, which protection or benefit he has not been afforded; or that persons in the same (or similar) position as himself have been