Ekhaya Vote 2023, a consortium of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Matabeleland has intensified its door-to-door campaign to encourage Bulawayo residents to register to vote during the ongoing biometric voter registration (BVR).
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is currently rolling out the second and last phase of the BVR blitz ahead of the delimitation exercise set for August.
Speaking to CITE, Ekhaya vote 2023 spokesperson, Nkosikhona Dibiti said they are investing their energy in constituencies that are likely to be affected by the delimitation processes.
“As Ekhaya vote 2023, our main goal which was why we came together as CSOs working in the Matabeleland region was to save our constituencies, the whole idea was to focus our energies on constituencies where there are fewer registered voters that are highly likely going to be affected by the delimitation process,” said Dibiti.
He said they are trying to encourage people to register to vote and also offer civic education and also answer pertinent questions that people have.
“We have teams in Bulawayo, 60 young people that we are working with, that are working as voter educators and ZEC has supplied us with those tags for voter educators who are going out there to the constituencies that are highly going to be affected by the delimitation process to try to encourage people to register to vote and answer pertinent questions that communities have,” said Dibiti.
He added that they also have activities lined up outside Bulawayo also as part of the efforts to encourage young people in rural areas to register to vote.
“Outside Bulawayo, we have activities lined up, yesterday we had a soccer tournament in Insiza South where young people came together and played soccer but the main message was let’s save Insiza South constituency.”
“We have activities coming up this Sunday in the form of soccer tournaments as a strategy for rural engagement in Matobo South as well as in Lupane, all these are lined up to try and encourage people and even the elderly who have not registered to vote,” said Dibiti.
He added that “We are using a multifaceted approach, in Bulawayo, we are doing door to door campaigns and we do roadshows, in rural communities, we do soccer tournaments and we also do radio programs.”
Dibiti said Ekhaya Vote 2023 is also raising awareness of the delimitation process.
“The whole idea is to spread the message of registering to vote but ideal encourage people in light of the delimitation process that is happening in July and lastly, we are looking at encouraging citizens everywhere we can to participate through this process and we are doing this up to the last day of the voter registration blitz which is the 30th of April,” he said.
