Six unidentified men stormed the Youth Forum Offices in Harare on Wednesday morning, demanding to know why the organisation is encouraging young people to register to vote. The Youth Forum said in a statement that the attack is a direct reaction to the Youth Forums program where its encouraging young people to register to vote by sending SMSs.
The suspected state agents stormed the offices and started unplugging the organisations computers and laptops, saying they were looking for Mass Communications Equipment that the group uses to send its SMSs.
After realising that they could not find such equipment at the Youth Forums Headquarters, they became very violent and started pushing around furniture and equipment and shoving around the organisations secretariat. They were so violent that they frightened a few of the organisations youth members who had come to the offices with complaints that they were failing to register as voters due to a lot of bureaucracy, the Youth Forum said.
The suspected state agents demanded to know why the organisation is urging young people to vote, when Robert Mugabe has not yet declared the date of poll. They said the SMSs are causing a lot of problems, because the Registrar Generals Office is apparently clogged with youngsters wanting to register as voters.
The group of men eventually left the Youth Forum offices and threatened the group with unspecified action if the SMSs continue to be sent.
They threatened to come back with more arsenals to deal with the organisation. For the concerns of security, the offices of the organisation have been temporarily closed until the situation normalizes, the Youth Forum said.
The Youth Forums SMS campaign was launched in an attempt to urge young people register as voters. The group says its sends SMS messages to about 18 000 youths at least three times every week urging them to take their National Identification Cards and proof of residence and go to their nearest Registrars office and register to vote.
The youths shall register to vote and will vote come election time and no amount of such threats and coercion will stop the youths from voting as this is their democratic right that cannot be taken away from them. The actions by these suspected state agents should be condemned with the strongest terms possible as it only undermines the efforts by the government to democratise the country, the Youth Forum said.
Post published in: News