The Citizens for Coalition for Change (CCC) must institutionalise a robust voter registration campaign in its activities in order to curb voter apathy in the upcoming elections.
The call comes at a time when voter registration among the youth has been significantly low about six months before the country goes for general elections.
Speaking on ‘This morning on Asakhe’ a CITE’s daily Twitter Spaces current affairs program, Hopewell Chin’ono said the CCC leader Nelson Chamisa needs to launch a voter registration campaign to galvanise young people into participating in the electoral process.
“Nelson Chamisa is the most charismatic politician in this country, the most popular politician amongst young people even amongst elderly people like myself and without him going at the front to say look this is now our official voter registration, we need to go out there and register to vote, it’s going to be the same story of apathy,” he said.
“I see that the opposition has been defensive and saying that Nelson Chamisa has been talking about voter registration and the spokesperson for the opposition Fadzai Mahere was posting on Saturday that Chamisa has been talking about this thing at every event but thus not an official voter registration campaign.”
He added that the party must come up with a voter registration strategy informed by data and target specific areas with low-registered voters.
“These are the things that are supposed to be institutionalised by the opposition, it is Nelson Chamisa, his MPs and Councillors that want power, they want to be voted for , they have to work for it, to simple say that we have been doing this, we are talking about voter registration doesn’t cut, it needs to be institutionalised, its needs to be official, you need to have a fund that helps these young people to go out and vote,” said Chin’ono.
Chin’ono also urged the opposition party to spotlight some of the challenges faced by citizens especially health issues.
“CCC needs to be talking about health more than Hopewell Chin’ono, this should be the space that opposition should have occupied. I am sure everybody doesn’t know who the CCC spokesperson for health is, and thus a tragedy,” said Chin’ono.
