Those Zimbabweans not in the country will be barred from voting from wherever they are in the 2018 election despite a 2013 constitutional amendment which gives the disapora population the vote, the BBC reports.
The electoral commission said Zimbabweans living abroad would have to come home to register, and then again to vote.
This is because new laws have not been put in place since the constitution was amended. The current law limits postal votes to those in government service abroad.
The decision comes as a big blow for the millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora who have waged a long campaign to get the vote.
Opposition parties in the South African nation have condemned the move saying it is a deliberate attempt by the state to disenfranchise millions of Zimbabweans.
Up to four million Zimbabweans have left the country as a result of the political and economic crisis that has gripped Zimbabwe for more than a decade.
