Tuesday 31 October 2017

BVR : YOUTHS IN SLOW UPTAKE

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says youths and women were slow in their uptake of biometric voter registration (BVR) during the first phase of the exercise countrywide.

This comes as only 1 million out of 7 million potential voters have so far registered to vote in next year’s general elections.

ZEC Acting CEO, Mr Utoile Silaigwana said the commission has noted with concern the slow uptake by youths and women to register as voters for the 2018 general elections.

“We have since taken the campaign to social media platforms to engage the youths and encourage them to register,” said Mr Silaigwana.

He however said there has been a lot of interest from teenagers below 18 years who wanted to register but were turned away due to lack of legal capacity to participate in the electoral process.

The commission is also concerned about aliens who are yet to regularise their citizen status.
The second phase of the registration blitz, which kicked off on the 29th of October, is expected to end on the 13th of November.

The third phase will commence on the third to the 16th of November, while the last phase is expected to begin on the 4th of December to December 19 this year.

The end of the blitz will not be the end of the registration as the remaining citizens can register at district offices and the process will go beyond 2018 elections.

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