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Zimbabwe youth first time voters training camp resolutions
Youth Agenda Trust
November 20, 2012

The Youth Agenda Trust from the 9th to the 13th of November 2012 conducted the Zimbabwe Youth contacts First Time Voters Training camp at Sanganayi Creek in Banket, Mashonaland West province. The camp drew youth leaders from the six Provinces of Zimbabwe and civil society leaders who work in the fields of youth and elections. The camp was held on the backdrop of proclamations by President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party that elections will be held in March 2013 with or without a new constitution. The youths were also fully cognisant of the violent, corrupt and undemocratic history of elections in Zimbabwe. These factors have been proven in various studies that they tend to stifle the quantitative and qualitative participation of young Zimbabweans.

At the conclusion of this very important and historic gathering, the following resolutions were made:

1. The young people of Zimbabwe will tirelessly work towards resisting any machinations by the state machinery to subvert the will of the youths and the broader Zimbabwean society through the state sponsored technical and political frustration of young people to register as eligible voters. A declaration was made that with immediate effect youths will go back to their provinces and forthwith engage in a mass identification, recruitment and mobilisation of young voters in endeavors to chat a democratic dispensation for the country

2. Youths are fully aware of the political risks they will be exposed to as they execute their constitutional mandate of encouraging the broader societies to proclaim their right to vote and choose political leaders through popular participation and a democratic process. Youth Agenda Trust was mandated to set up networks with relevant institutions that offer social solidarity, legal aid, medical aid and psychosocial counseling to affected young people.

3. The state media remains partisan, unprofessional and irrelevant in disseminating crucial information to young people on the voting process. It was noted that the state media continues to be the epicentre of hate speech, indoctrination, intolerance and the instigation of political violence amongst young Zimbabweans. The youths resolved to set up a parallel political information programme that will flood the social media, mobile networks, print media, electronic media and community information centres that will act as the hub of informing and educating Zimbabweans on the electoral process and peaceful conduct during and after elections.

4. The camp resolved that young people will participate in the forthcoming elections as candidates, election observers, to monitor the tabulation and transmission of election results and to mobilize Zimbabweans to a peaceful action program that rejects any 2013 electoral outcome that is against the democratic will of Zimbabweans as expressed through the electoral process.

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