By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network has called on the Ministry of Justice, Parliamentary and Legal Affairs and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to consider lowering nomination fees for youth to enable them to join the race.
The network said youth participation in political and electoral violence has a negative effect on their political, economic and social inclusion.
“They are often coerced by the political leadership to play a role only limited to mobilising, channelling youthful political participation and in some cases perpetrating acts of violence to further their political leaders’ interests.
“On the other hand, the youth have also been victims of political violence, hence there is a need to foster peace, conflict management and tolerance of divergent views ahead of the 2023 Plebiscite,” he network said.
ZESN urged youth not to allow themselves to be used to cause violence in the coming elections.
“ZESN thus, implores youths to exercise their constitutional rights through taking part in continuous voter registration as well as in participating in various electoral processes peacefully.
“The Network, reaffirming the principle of inclusivity and participation by all and especially young people as is enshrined in the constitution for all electoral processes, reiterates the importance of fostering an enabling, level playing and safe environment for youths participating in electoral processes as well as political spaces.
“Critical is the importance of opening up these spaces to younger people to take part in electoral processes as candidates, observers and election workers among other roles key to the democratic processes of Zimbabwe.
“Further, ZESN welcomes the institutionalisation of the youth quota in the National Assembly to enhance their participation in democratic governance processes as this is something that youth had been lobbying for since 2017.
However, ZESN said, there was need for the government and political parties to employ the 25% threshold as outlined in the National Youth Policy, to ensure representation of youth in all public office and leadership positions from the grassroots going upwards e.g. village, ward, and council to National level.
Whilst the youth are an important demographic group in the country constituting 67.7% of the total population, their participation and representation in key governance processes remains low due to lower voter registration and low turnout during polling.
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