Fredrick Moyo
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has approved only four Masvingo based Civic Society Organisation (CSOs) to conduct voter education in the province ahead of March 26 by-elections and 2023 harmonised elections.
ZEC approved 76 CSOs to conduct voter education countrywide and only four are from Masvingo.
Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD), Zimbabwe Association of Visually Handicapped (ZAVH), My Age Zimbabwe Trust and South Eastern Centre are the four organisations.
However, on the list there are some CSOs based out of Masvingo that also operate in the province like Election Resource Centre (ERC), Heal Zimbabwe Trust, Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice (CCJP), Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCOZ) among others.
Election Resource Centre (ERC) Legal and Advocacy Officer Takunda Tsunga said voter education programme has been ongoing since 2021, as they focus on youths and women to ensure that they take part in voting and help reach a larger population through online and physical education exercises.
“Voter education has been ongoing since last year. As youths and women form the biggest electoral demographic, our activities will be tailor-made to ensure their participation.
“As ERC we will ensure that we carry out a hybrid voter education and mobilization approach, online and physical, to reach as many citizens as possible. Following the 2018 Harmonised elections, voter turnout for by-elections stood at less than 50% in some constituencies and councils hence our duty will be to improve that. True representative democracy can only be achieved when citizens participate in electoral processes,” said Tsunga.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) Programmes Director Ellen Dingani said ZEC approved ZESN to partake in voter education process and have been working together for years.
“ZESN is part of the CSOs approved by ZEC to conduct voter education. We have been doing voter education for quite a number of years,” said Dingani.
She also added that in some areas they liase with ZEC so that they do not conduct voter education in the same area.
“We liase with ZEC so that we do not duplicate the target audience. We check if ZEC is present in that particular area and try covering the areas they are not covering,” Dingani added.
Dingani said they are currently finalizing their plans and there will soon be a meeting with their voter education taskforce looking at areas that they are able to cover as their objective is to ensure every person gets proper education on voting.
“Our main objective is to ensure that every eligible voter gets information pertaining to voter education.
“We are finalizing our plans and will be meeting our taskforce that works specifically on voter and civic education next week so that we see which areas our taskforce are able to cover and the kind of activities we can do with the resources we have,” said Dingani.
My Age Zimbabwe Programmes Manager Joseph Njowa said they target youths and first time voters.
“Our main target are youths mainly from 18-24 years to guide them through the process as most of them are first time voters,” said Njowa.
Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) Programmes Officer Ishmael Kupfuwa said the job was too much for only four CSOs to conduct voter education in the province that already has a low turnout in voter registration.
“COTRAD has been accredited to conduct voter education but ZEC should allow as many organisations to carry out voter education since the number of people registering to vote are low, a clear indication of lack of voter information in communities.
“ZEC should include organizations based in rural areas, because four CSOs cannot cover all the areas,” said Kupfuwa.
He added that they are mobilizing people through soccer and netball games, online and also doing radio shows.
“We are already into voter education. We are doing it through community soccer tournaments, in that regard COTRAD has voter education (IVOte) branded soccer and netball jerseys being used in Masvingo district and we are working towards expanding to other districts in the province,” said Kupfuwa.
ZEC invited both local and foreign observers ahead of the much awaited by-elections recently proclaimed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to be held on March 26, 28 National Assembly constituencies and 117 local authorities are vacant.
