some entered more than once, as well as other anomalies.37 The MDC is carrying out audits in all urban areas and claims it has identified serious anomalies in Harare Central, Mbare, and Harare North.38 The Right to Vote: Major Exclusions The new Electoral Act preserves its predecessor’s provision that permits only those who are outside their constituencies on some type of government-sponsored business, be it electoral, military, or diplomatic, to use the postal ballot. At the end of January 2005, seven Zimbabweans in exile and representing the UK-based Diaspora Vote Action Group brought an urgent application to the Supreme Court to request that it order the government to enable them to vote by postal ballot in the March election and any subsequent elections. They claimed that voting was their fundamental right, that the constitution provided for their right to vote, and that the SADC Guidelines endorsed that right. Judgment was reserved after the court hearing on 23 February.39 The Supreme Court has still not made a ruling. The case is significant because of the numbers effectively disenfranchised by the postal ballot restrictions and because of the Justice Minister’s political rationale for excluding Zimbabweans in exile from using a postal ballot. It is estimated that 3.4 million mainly adults are living outside Zimbabwe.40 According to the 2002 census, more than 50% of the total population of 12 million people is under fifteen years.41 Given that the voting age is eighteen years, the number of adults living outside the country roughly approximates the number of adults living inside Zimbabwe. By excluding exiled Zimbabweans from the right to use a postal ballot, the government is effectively disenfranchising a substantial voter population. As “factual background,” the Justice Minister claimed that most Zimbabwean exiles lived in the “hostile” countries of the UK, the EU, the US, New Zealand and Canada where only the opposition would be able to campaign, thus providing it with an unfair advantage over the ruling party.42 As a lawyer for the exiled group remarked, most exiles are in South Africa with which the government has a friendly relationship.43 37 Zimbabwe Independent, February 18, 2005, Conrad Dube/Loughty Dube, “Ghost voters unearthed.” 38 Zimbabwe Independent, February 18, 2005, Conrad Dube/Loughty Dube, “Ghost voters unearthed.” 39 Press statement by the Diaspora Vote Action Group, n.d., Zimbabwe Supreme Court Reserves Judgment on Diaspora Vote; Zim Online, February 24, 2005, “Voting not a fundamental right: Supreme Court judges”. 40 Solidarity Peace Trust Report, September 2004. 41 Solidarity Peace Trust Report, September 2004. 42 Case No.SC.22/05. 1 respondent’s opposing affidavit. February 8, 2005., p.5 43 Human Rights Watch interview with Beatrice Mtetwa, lawyer, Harare, February 10, 2005. st 11