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Youths welcome the delaying of elections
Youth Forum
March 10, 2011

The youths of Zimbabwe have welcomed the decision by the Zimbabwe crisis mediator, South African president Jacob Zuma, that the prevailing environment makes it impossible to hold credible polls.

The delaying of these polls will allow the embattled Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) enough time to clean up the decrepit and ramshackle voters' roll. It is the view of the Youth Forum that the current state of the voters' roll cannot lead to a credible election with thousands of ghost voters and many more voters under the legal voting age of 18. This delay should also allow for the implementation of pending issues as prescribed by the Global Political Agreement particularly issues to do with the new constitution, establishment and enabling of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, media and security reforms among others.

Investigations by the Youth Forum Information Department revealed that many youths across the country welcome this latest development. Thabitha from Mbare applauded the decision saying it should give the government ample time to deal with issues of violence towards elections and allow more people to vote. From, Biriiri in Chimanimani George said the latest developments will give more time for the electorate to register as voters as well as for ZEC to come up with enough measures to ensure a valid voters' roll and a plausible election.

The Youth Forum Board Chairperson, Madock Chivasa welcomed the move saying it will give the electorate ample time to register as voters in line with the organization's current campaign to get at least 1,000,000 (1 million) new voters by December 2011. He also said the campaign was reaping positive results with the SMS campaign now reaching out to 20,000 young people from across the country. Scores of youths have taken heed to the messages of encouragement and have registered as voters. The campaign is moving into the next stage that will see the sticking of posters in and around marginalized communities, the releasing of a newsletter targeted at gating young people to register as well as the assisting of young people to acquire proof of residence that is needed for registration.

Meanwhile, information reaching Youth Forum is that nine youths from Munhumba Village under Chief Sengwe in Chiredzi have been turned away at the Registrar General's offices after they failed to provide proof of residence as they wanted to register as voters. The nine have written to the organization seeking assistance to acquire the much-needed but irrelevant proof of residence so that they can take part in the next polls. The Youth Forum urges the responsible authorities to revise these requirements as they are denying many people, especially the young who cannot readily access the proof of residence documents, to exercise their democratic right of electing their leaders.

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