When it was Steward Chikuni's turn to cast her vote at a polling station in Bulawayo’s Pumula South high density suburb, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) officials ordered him to leave.
The Zec officials said Chukuni could not vote since her national identification document (ID) didn't match her physical appearance.
Zimbabweans voted in presidential, parliamentary and local government elections on August 23, which spilled to the following day in some wards in Harare and Manicaland due to the late delivery of election material.
“I was one of the first people to get to the polling station to exercise my right to vote, but that right was then challenged because of who I am,” said Chikuni, a transgender woman, popularly known as Stewie.
Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
Assigned male at birth, the 27-year-old, who uses pronouns she/her/hers, says she encounters a torrid time in accessing public services because her physical looks don't match her documentation.
“I was stopped, harassed and embarrassed in front of other voters,” Chikuni said.
“The Zec presiding officials said I couldn't vote because I was not the person represented by my ID card.
“I then consulted one of the polling officers, who knew me personally because she is my former teacher.
“She is the one who made the agents change their minds, if it wasn't for her I would have not exercised my right to vote.”
Chikuni said there was need to sensitise Zec officials on the importance of minority communities during the electoral process.
“Zec and the government says voting is for everyone, but as long as presiding officials are not educated about other minority groups such as the transgender, we will also have problems and people's rights stifled,” she said.
“Imagine how many transgender people failed to vote on the day because of the same experience I encountered.”
Another transgender woman Musa Moyo (32) from Bulawayo claimed that she did not attempt to vote because she feared being turned away and being embarrassed.
“During last year's by-elections I was turned away, mocked, and called all sorts of names,” Moyo said.
“I was told by polling agents that I had no space in the community and I was one of the people who defiled society.
“To avoid such embarrassment I decided not to vote and that means I couldn't exercise my constitutional rights to select my representatives at community, constituency and national levels.”
Moyo said she was not the only one who did not vote.
“I'm not the only one who didn't participate in the voting process,” she said.
“A number of transgender people opted out, it's better not to practice your right than to be embarrassed and to be called names, the trauma is too much to take.”
Sexual minority groups have been advocating for re-documentation of transgender people so that they are issued with national identity cards reflecting their unique status.
Chikuni appealed to the government and the Civil Registry Department to acknowledge the existence of “trans-women” and “trans-man”, as well as lobbying for inclusive gender markers.
A gender marker represents an individual's gender identity, most commonly in the abbreviations F (female), M (male), or X (non-binary, intersex, or gender non-conforming).
“The main issue is the gender markers, transgender people’s documentation doesn’t match their appearances and some (Transgender people) did not vote in the recent August 23 and 24 elections,” Chikuni said.
“Re-documentation and changing gender markers for the transgender community is the answer to all these problems.”
Sam Ndlovu, the executive director for Trans Research Education Advocacy and Training, said there was a need for re-documentation of transgender people.
“Trans-persons whose IDs do not match their appearance struggle with every process needing the use of ID and voter registration and eventually voting is one of the many difficulties they have,” he said.
“Firstly, the struggle to explain one’s appearance versus the ID whereas changes for one transitioning or as an adult may alter appearance over periods as short as one or two years depending on the individual, significant enough for their appearance to be doubted as well as their gender marker not being adequate for their navigation of public life although degrees of this experience vary.
“I think it is important even for the census that these issues are taken into account to ensure data accuracy and that every citizen is afforded the opportunity to exercise their right.”