Citizens have a responsibility to register to vote and participate in the upcoming elections if democracy is to thrive, Democratic Union of Zimbabwe (DUZ) presidential aspirant Robert Chapman has said.
Chapman has thrown his hat into the political ring and plans to contest the 2023 presidential elections.
He is currently going around the country canvassing for support.
“The only thing that we can do is galvanize numbers, people coming out and registering to vote. We have to change the message from the message of polarization and loss of hope to the message of reality that we can still create the change that we want, but we need the citizens to come behind and register to vote and show up and protect their vote,” he said in an interview on The Breakfast Club.
Chapman said the focus at the moment should be encouraging people to register to vote.
“If we have the right messaging, people will come out in their numbers to vote, the problem is people are saying this thing hasn’t worked in a long time, it never works, it’s not bringing change why would I bother to go and stand in line and register myself to vote, this thing is already rigged, it’s over, it creates huge problems in the message.”
He added that he is going to be at the forefront of encouraging people to register to vote.
“When it comes to registration exercise, one of those is for me to be on the forefront, I saw even some MPs have taken really that into their own hands and they are walking door to door, we would be doing that here in Bulawayo tomorrow (Saturday), we will be walking door to door talking to people, sharing messages.”
Chapman also dispelled the notion that registering to vote meant that a person has aligned themselves to a certain political party.
“It doesn’t, registration to vote just says that you have taken the first step and over the next four-five months maybe have an open mind and start looking at different political parties in different aspects, even if you said I am not interested in the Presidential party but I am registering to vote because I want to know who my councillor is going to be, I want to know who my MP is going to be if you only focused on those two you would have done a great service to your community and to yourself,” he said.
The DUZ leader said non-participation in electoral processes may be costly considering that decisions made during elections may affect people for the next five years and beyond.
“If you miss the opportunity to engage in this election, if you are 23 years old, the next time you do you will be 28 years meaning you will probably be married and most likely have a child, so whatever happens in the next five years would have been a result of non-participation in this election and you would have missed the opportunity, so imagine now the health care system, you get married and you have a child there will be born in the health care system that you didn’t participate to change in this election and you have to wait to 2028 to make that change.”
