A study carried out in April 2010 by the Zimbabwe
Elections Support Network (ZESN) revealed that over 70 percent of the country’s youths do not participate in national elections. They don’t even register for them.
The study indicated that only18 percent of the youth register and partake in the voting
exercise while 72 percent fail to execute either of the two processes, said Ndodana Ndlovu of ZESN during a youth participation awareness workshop hosted by the Nation Youth Democratic Trust.
He said the statistics were surprising because people attending political rallies are women and the youths. But come
Elections, only a fraction of the those actually voted.
Some youths blamed the process, which involves acquiring various documents such as a national identity card when one was over the age of 16. This was impossible when one was orphaned and failed to produce either of his or her parent’s documents.
“It is difficult for us to have the right documents and by the time elections come we don’t participate because we are turned way for not possessing the required papers,” said one.
Ndlovu suggested maybe the youths were impatient and gave up too soon on processing their documents.
“There are two stations in Bulawayo which hand out national ids – Msitheli (the Bulawayo registry office) and at Pumula. These two stations are known to process only 35 cards a day so when the youths see the long queues they give up. But what is surprising is that there are more rural folk registered than urban folk,” he said.
Other contributors were of the decision that many youths had emigrated. “Some of us leave the country to work elsewhere, in search of money and we have no time to stay and vote, because we need the money,” said one young man, to applause from the crowd.
One female participant suggested the youth had no knowledge about the importance of voting.
“They youths don’t understand the importance of voting – particularly the significance of each individual vote. The responsible people should educates us,” she said.
The ZESN official said active participation was minimal compared to passive participation.
“Active participation is when an individual does all the effort to participate willingly and passive participation is when the individual is pushed to do something by some authority – for example the government. Some people need pushing in order to acquire a basic document,” he said.
Ndlovu urged the youngsters to participate actively in voter registration ahead of upcoming elections.
“Instead of engaging in violence, the ballot box should be your trustee. Each vote has an impact. If you don’t practice voting, what's your worth in this community?” he asked.
Post published in: News