No vote, no sex for Zim women: politician

A Zimbabwean politician has urged ethnic Ndebele men to deny their wives sex if they can't prove they have voted in the next election.

Women from the minority group had in the past cost the MDC-N party many votes, party secretary general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga was quoted as saying in state media.

Some 300,000 registered women voters in the capital Harare, home to a Shona majority had cast their ballots in the last election in 2008.

But in the smaller and predominantly Ndebele western city of Bulawayo, less than a third of the 300,000 who registered showed up at the polls, she said.

"This shows us the extent to which women are letting us down," Misihairabwi-Mushonga said.

Men should inspect their partner's fingers for traces of the indelible ink in which voters have to dip their fingers on election day.

"If there is no ink to prove they have cast their vote, then they should put a total sex embargo on their wives," she said.