HARARE, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe will seek the help of Estonia to explore the possibility of implementing an e-voting system that would allow Zimbabweans based in the Diaspora to participate in national elections, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Diaspora-based Zimbabweans have long clamored to be given the chance to vote in national elections from their bases but this has not been possible.
The calls grew louder in the July 30 harmonized elections, culminating in some Zimbabweans based in the Diaspora approaching the courts to compel the government to facilitate their participation in the polls.
However, the Constitutional Court threw out the application.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is in New York for the 73rd UN General Assembly, promised Zimbabweans resident in the US that his administration would look into the possibility of implementing e-voting in the near future, the state-run news agency New Ziana reported.
Mnangagwa, meanwhile, met Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas on the sidelines of the UNGA to discuss wide-ranging issues including how Zimbabwe could tap into Estonian knowledge on e-voting.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet responsible for presidential communications George Charamba told Zimbabwean media traveling with Mnangagwa that the choice of seeking assistance from Estonia was informed by the fact that the country was a leading Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) powerhouse.
"Estonia is in fact a leader in terms of ICT development and for Zimbabwe we looked at three critical areas of ICT cooperation with Estonia, e-health, e-governance but more critically e-voting. You are aware that we do have a big Diaspora community whose fervent call has been for them to be given the power to vote except the logistics of it has been forbidding," Charamba said.
The European country has implemented e-voting since 1997, having started aggressively pursuing a national ICT education strategy since the mid 1990's.
