A WARD councillor in Bulawayo, Mpumelelo Moyo, has claimed that the youth are reluctant to register to vote mainly as a result of past experiences with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec).
Moyo told Southern Eye during a registration and mobilisation campaign conducted by Citizens Coalition for Change at the weekend in Bulawayo that there are multiple irregularities perpetrated by Zec that are pushing away potential voters.
“The young people are not eager to come for registration and that means we have to work extra hard to convince them to come to Zec. They tell themselves that voting does not work because of the trauma they have experienced in the past. Ever since they became eligible to vote, they have always encountered the same results,” Moyo said.
“I want to tell the youth to go and register to vote. The more people register, the harder it becomes to rig. They always have an advantage because it’s easy to manipulate smaller numbers but with a large number it will be impossible.”
Bulawayo Polytechnic student Sindiwiwe Tanyanyiwa said voter mobilisation was good in that it made the registration process much easier.
“I heard from a (National University of Science and Technology) NUST student that people are being transported to Zec for registration. I had wanted to go all along but as a full-time student with a lot of assignments and I did not have time or interest, but I encourage others to go and register so that we go and vote in our large numbers,” she said.
NUST student Justice Ndlovu said citizens needed to learn from countries like Zambia.
“The youth there said enough is enough and voted their oppressors out. We are complaining a lot as college students and unemployed youths. It’s time to walk the talk and remove Zanu PF from power and get rid of its lies and empty promises. We can only do that if we adopt the right attitude and register to vote,’’ Ndlovu said.
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He said there was only one person attending to them when they arrived for the registration exercise at Zec offices.
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