Watch video: “I Do Not Know The Importance Of Voti...

Watch video: “I Do Not Know The Importance Of Voting”: Disenfranchisement Cuts Out Youths

Some of the young people that shared their views

Mike Mashiri

Afrobarometer recently released results showing that only about 50 percent of young people would likely register to vote in 2023. Majority of older Zimbabweans said they are registered voters and intend to carry out their civic responsibility in the 2023 elections.

But just over 50 percent of 18 to 35-year-olds said they will probably or definitely vote. Zim Now went onto the streets of Harare to talk to people within this age group who are not registered voters.

The picture painted is one of disenfranchisement. Young people seem to be influence by perceptions that do not always match the reality on the ground. But that does not make it less

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We don’t know why we should vote

“People should be taught at school about the benefits of voting. We just know that we should vote, but l do not know the relevance of voting myself. If l know the importance of voting and understand it, l might be able to participate in the election process,” said Tanaka Shofinari, 25.

“People do not know the importance of being a voter, so more education in the form of campaigns must be done. The government must also tell people that it is not a crime to be in the voter’s,” said Mai Nyasha, 34.

It is not clear what exactly Shofinari and Mai Martha would consider adequate voter education to encourage youths to vote.

The message is out there

Several NGOs continuously carry out awareness and education trying to get youth engaged in civil matters. On social media platforms posts urging people to vote are all over. On platforms like Facebook and Twitter, “Register to vote” often comes up as a comment on totally unrelated posts.

No chance to register

A number of young people seem to believe that they do not have adequate opportunity to register as voters. “We want to vote, but we do not know the days the voting agents are registering people to vote. If we know the days which they work or hear when they do the registration, we will register. We really want to vote,” Fadzai Dumbu, 24, said.

Memory Chimura ,24, said she missed the chance: “I did not get the opportunity to register, but given an opportunity, l would participate in the registration,” she said.

James Hanoki, 32, believes that the registration window is too short and over before everyone has a chance. “The places the registration is being done is far and not convenient for us to go. The voter’s registration blitz that are happening are being done in around three days in a ward and at times you might not available in the three days they will be doing it.

“It’s different from the previous elections where they would open the registration for three months at one place like in the previous election that is what they did, but now it’s being done in a few days. Other people do not even know, some are not told,” Hanoki said.

Communication is out there

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission communicates its voter registration outreach programs through mainstream media and on social media

platforms like Twitter where young people congregate. But interestingly, the ZEC handle on Twitter has less than 200 thousand followers, compared to celebrity handles. This is much less than somecelebrities and socialites.

On the other hand, social media influencers amplify registration messages on all platforms. The comment “Register to vote” is often randomly thrown on platforms like Twitter and Facebook on totally unrelated posts.

Also, ZEC has continuous registration centres open in all provinces of the country and has the comprehensive list on their website. Any person who genuinely wants to register should be able to do so on a normal working day during office hours.

During the mobile outreach voter registration carried out by ZEC earlier this year, several NGOs and civil organisations were invested in mobilising young people to vote. Allegations were thrown around of financial incentives paid to young people as bribes to register to vote.

It’s too onerous

Some young people who spoke to Zim Now said that the whole process is just too cumbersome and that puts them off. “I did not register to vote because the process involved is tiresome. There will be long queues at the registration centers and because of that, you will end up leaving the whole thing as you will be supposed to do other things,” said Frank Jera, 20.

“The first problem is of acquiring a national identification card. The systems are very slow, you will have to wait for 6-7 hours in a queue without any form of help, you can even take days,” said Mai Martha.

The process is not as cumbersome as believed

“I managed to register within 40 minutes,” a social media user commenting on a post discussing a mobile voter registration carried out by ZEC earlier this year. Only 50 thousand new voters registered.

During that period, a one stop shop approach was taken with mobile registry services set up beside the ZEC posts to facilitate documentation for those who needed to put their houses in order first.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage last week said they had issued 3 million documents over the past six months as they worked to cut the backlog created by Covid-19 lockdowns.

They issued 1 300 573 national identification cards, 1 758 322 birth certificates and 44 590 death certificates. There are some people with genuine documentation challenges. But for the majority, this is not an insurmountable hurdle.

No faith in the system

Some young people said that they had issues with ZEC’s credibility and felt that voting would be a waste of their time. “I believe that in Zimbabwe the youths are failing to register to vote because of how ZEC ran the previous elections. Most of them will be complaining of issues pertaining to vote rigging and that the results will not come out way people would have voted,” said James Hanoki.

He went on to say that the current ZEC board did not inspire confidence, that there is need for reformation of the institutions.

Hanoki said the observers also need to be more credible so that young people can only believe that their vote counts if they can trust the system.

Others said there is no viable option among the frontrunners for president in 2023 and therefore did not see any need to waste their time and effort taking part in the election.

This is something that needs to be addressed

ZEC’s lack of credibility is fertile ground for social media memes. Objective analysis says the organisation is responsible for that situation. For example, in the 2018 election, it was never clear why the institution chose to announce results from rural constituencies ahead of urban areas.

On the other hand, results from by-elections held this year have generally been accepted as credible because the opposition parties and observers endorsed them as true representation of what happened.

The lesson for ZEC there is that it must conduct its business in a very transparent manner so that there is no room for anyone to raise reasonable doubt about their processes.

Who will bring them to the table?

Zimbabwe Election Support Network says young people constitute 67.7 percent of the population and there is need to ensure sustainable inclusivity and enhanced civic engagement in politics. Youth not taking part in elections is a global concern. Many studies have been carried out on the phenomenon with a wide gamut of suggested solutions.

Among these is early inculcation of voting responsibility by including it in school curricula. Strong youth representation in leadership is put forward as a strong incentive as young people are more likely to turn up and vote for one of their own rather than older people.

Continuous engagement in community affairs and decision making at community level is also suggested as way of ensuring that youths understand what is at stake when election time comes.

The two main political parties in the country believe that they are doing their best to engage young people to vote. “We continue to call upon our structures from the cell, branch, district, and CCCs to co-ordinate and assist young potential voters to get them registered to vote,” said Zanu-PF director for communications Tafadzwa Mugwadi.

“Youths must know that the jobs and opportunities they crave for will only come if they participate in political processes like voter registration and voting itself.” Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) National Youth leader Stephen Chuma said.