A Fee in exchange for a Vote? Yes Please!

Posted by ZDN on January 11, 2010

How much would the average Zimbabwean citizen pay to see democracy return to their country? Ten US dollars? Twenty? Anything?

A Zimbabwean think-tank has published a report on ways that Zimbabwe could be rebuilt after decades of misrule. The report, published by The University of Manchester’s Brooks World Poverty Institute and launched by Finance Minister Tendai Biti, has among other recommendations, proposed an expatriate income tax, and fees for citizenship and a diasporean vote.

The suggestion of expatriate taxation has met with strong disapproval among diasporean commentators. But although the idea of income tax may be disagreeable, the proposal for a fee for voting should be strongly supported.

The universal covenant between a citizen and a government is basically this: “I pay my taxes and in return I get protection, citizenship rights, a vote and a civil service to administer the national infrastructure”.

Citizens should remember that this covenant works both ways. Of course there must be no taxation without representation, and so logically there can be no representation without taxation. A citizen has responsibilities as well as privileges.
(The USA taxes the income earned by its citizens working outside the US. It does this in order to be able to provide social security and to finance US protection of its citizens abroad. Denmark, Norway, Morocco and many other countries do the same).

It is clear that the rebuilding of Zimbabwe requires finance from somewhere, and although expat income tax may come under discussion, it may never become law. But a fee for keeping one’s citizenship and being able to vote is an entirely separate proposition.

That the Zimbabwean diaspora could be allowed a vote will be a huge improvement on the present arrangement – where citizens abroad have no voting rights at all. No huge outcry has been heard about that – but the minute a fee is proposed, the objections come thick and fast. “Voting rights are inalienable..,” shouts one. “Citizenship is a birthright..,” screams another. Both of these opinions are correct, but these overseas shouters have not objected to being disenfranchised before now!

It is normal to pay a fee for, say, the renewal of a passport, ID book or driving license. It is universally understood that secure documents such as these cost money to administer, to verify, print and deliver to the citizen.

It is therefore entirely practical to propose a fee to cover the cost of expat balloting. The country is broke; it has no resources to set up and run polling stations in every country where there may be a population of Zimbabwean citizens. Elections are costly, even in-country. How much more expensive would they be to operate from overseas? Consider such items as the cost of ballot papers, ballot boxes, the salaries of polling officials, the security, the counters, the observers, and the final validation and transmission of the results.

Zimbabweans should remember that, in the years before 1980, the right to vote was hard bought. Many even paid the ultimate price: in the people’s chimurengas, they paid with their lives for the right to vote. Now, thirty years later, the people feel they should complain about a proposed expat voting fee of a few dollars?

The Zanu-PF side of the Zimbabwean Inclusive Government is very strongly against the idea of a diasporean vote. This alone should galvanise those citizens living abroad to do everything in their power to make sure they get it.

And for those commentators who plead the poverty of the refugee masses – the starving and vulnerable diasporeans in South Africa - rather than shout the idea down, let them start to organise sponsors, donors and other campaigns to either help those voters get a ballot – or simply go home and vote for free.

Three million voters at the next election could sweep away any doubt as to how many, and how much, Zimbabweans are prepared to pay for change.