Project Vote 263 Hits The Ground Running
By Gracious Nyathi
Ten days after launching a campaign to combat youth voter apathy, PROJECT VOTE 263, a local youth development organization, has hit the ground running by getting eighteen youths registered to vote.
The youth group mobilized the 18 youths from Epworth and provided transport to and from the registration centre.
The registration centre is situated at Makombe Building in Harare Central Business District a distance of about 17,9kms.
Project Vote 263, launched a campaign running under the theme Go Educate, Mobilize And Register To Vote.
The campaign will be rolled out in four provinces registration namely; Harare, Matabeleland, Masvingo and Manicaland.
These provinces have been identified as areas with low voter registration.
Significance of mobilizing youths to register.
Project Vote 263 programmes manager Prince Gora outlined the significance of mobilizing and transporting young people to vote.
“If we get the youth to vote, we are highly likely to have more young people winning the elections.
“… their peers will not only fall in love with the message but go a step further to elect them.
“We are trying to place young politicians at an advantage by mobilizing like minded people to register,” Gora said.
However, Project Vote 263 mobilizer Lorraine Shumba said the project was not easy to implement due to decreasing enthusiasm.
“We try to get as many youth as we can but they resist a lot.
“…we have to beg them and work on their terms in order to get them to the registration centres.
“Some will even dictate the time they want to leave and be returned to their homes.
“The conversations we have with them prove that they do not have faith in voting. This presents us with a task of educating them on the importance of voting,” Shumba said.
Testimonials from some of the beneficiaries
One of the Epworth beneficiaries, Sally Chanyuka, expressed gratitude to the organizers as she was clueless about voting.
“We came to register to vote with the assistance of project vote 263 and I managed to register to vote.
“I had no idea what goes on with voter registration or how I will go about it but I am very grateful for this opportunity.
“Most of us are not aware of voting procedures because it is not taught in schools, we only get to hear about these things when we leave school,” Chanyuka said.
Another beneficiary, Lyer Maurice, who failed to register suggested that voter education should be available earlier.
“I strongly feel that we were denied the right to learn about these things earlier.
“In school we were being mentored to be employees and how to be the most preferable job candidate but not taught about the routes to taking up space in political landscapes.
“This creates problems because now I am 18 and beginning to receive voter education at a time when I am supposed to be participating and not learning.
“The inconveniences are many because today I could not register after i was told that i am an alien voter yet i do not even know what that is,” Maurice added
Project Vote 263 Hits The Ground Running
