Opinion / Columnist
Let our youth register to vote en masse
18 Oct 2021 at 01:29hrs | Views
ON October 15, 2021, Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) launched its informal sector voter education campaign dubbed the Enhanced Informal Sector Voter Mobilisation and Advocacy Initiative (EISeVOMA).
EISeVOMA seeks to enhance informed young informal traders and informal traders living with disability's participation in the upcoming by-elections and 2023 harmonised elections in all the major towns and cities in Zimbabwe.
The launch of the campaign coincided with the training of over 25 young people drawn from Viset leadership structures known as SOCHAMPs for Harare.
The training was conducted in partnership with the Election Resource Centre (ERC).
In delivering his opening remarks, Viset executive director Samuel Wadzai indicated that EISeVOMA will address the challenge of low participation by young informal traders and informal traders with disability in governance processes in general, and the on-going voter registration process in particular.
He stressed that Viset will work with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and it is anticipated that the EISeVOMA initiative will contribute to the mobilisation of youths, marginalised groups and people with disability in all the major cities and towns of Zimbabwe to register to vote and ensure that their names are on the voters register during the inspection period.
As the name suggests, the EISeVOMA has the twin task of educating and mobilising informal traders in the selected areas to participate in electoral processes, with a specific aim of getting young and disabled informal traders registered for the upcoming by-elections and the 2023 harmonised elections.
It aims to increase knowledge on electoral processes (voter education) especially on boundary delimitation processes and the number of young informal traders registering as voters.
During the training session for the SOCHAMPs, Solomon Bobosibunu, who was representing ERC, highlighted critical aspects of voter education such as, aims of voter education, timing for voter education, methods of voter education, standard voter education messages to mention a few.
He highlighted that traditional voter education aims to create a climate of knowledgeable participation by all potential voters in a forthcoming election. He said it also sought to enable potential voters to cast their votes with confidence.
He concluded by saying while provision of voter information is certainly the responsibility of the electoral authority, voter education is the responsibility of both of the electoral authority and civil society.
EISeVOMA seeks to enhance informed young informal traders and informal traders living with disability's participation in the upcoming by-elections and 2023 harmonised elections in all the major towns and cities in Zimbabwe.
The launch of the campaign coincided with the training of over 25 young people drawn from Viset leadership structures known as SOCHAMPs for Harare.
The training was conducted in partnership with the Election Resource Centre (ERC).
In delivering his opening remarks, Viset executive director Samuel Wadzai indicated that EISeVOMA will address the challenge of low participation by young informal traders and informal traders with disability in governance processes in general, and the on-going voter registration process in particular.
He stressed that Viset will work with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and it is anticipated that the EISeVOMA initiative will contribute to the mobilisation of youths, marginalised groups and people with disability in all the major cities and towns of Zimbabwe to register to vote and ensure that their names are on the voters register during the inspection period.
As the name suggests, the EISeVOMA has the twin task of educating and mobilising informal traders in the selected areas to participate in electoral processes, with a specific aim of getting young and disabled informal traders registered for the upcoming by-elections and the 2023 harmonised elections.
It aims to increase knowledge on electoral processes (voter education) especially on boundary delimitation processes and the number of young informal traders registering as voters.
During the training session for the SOCHAMPs, Solomon Bobosibunu, who was representing ERC, highlighted critical aspects of voter education such as, aims of voter education, timing for voter education, methods of voter education, standard voter education messages to mention a few.
He highlighted that traditional voter education aims to create a climate of knowledgeable participation by all potential voters in a forthcoming election. He said it also sought to enable potential voters to cast their votes with confidence.
He concluded by saying while provision of voter information is certainly the responsibility of the electoral authority, voter education is the responsibility of both of the electoral authority and civil society.
Source - NewsDay Zimbabwe
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