Elections advocacy group, the Election Resource Centre (ERC) has called for innovative ways of conducting civic and voter education during the COVID-19 pandemic period to curb voter apathy among youths and women.
In a statement, ERC says the suspension of electoral activities had scaled down civic and voter education leading to chances of voter apathy and exclusion of youths and women.
“The suspension of by-elections and electoral activities in a bid to curb Covid-19 has contributed to the voter apathy that currently grips the Zimbabwean political environment. Innovative ways are needed to target women and young people in particular to engage the populace to participate in electoral and political processes.
“Zimbabwe risks higher voter apathy and further exclusion of young people and women from comprehensively participating in electoral processes and occupying significant political positions come the 2023 harmonised elections, due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the suspension of elections,” said ERC.
The centre said civic society organisations have become agents of voter education and their capacity is limited due to lack of resources.
“The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has significantly scaled-down civic and voter education since the lockdown of March 2020 which threatens to have long-term effects on political and electoral participation if innovative ways of engagement are not devised.
“Although not explicitly mandated by the Constitution and the Electoral Act, civil society has become the main agent of voter education, owing to the absence of significant ZEC interest in carrying out the task to conduct voter education periodically.
“Even so, their capacity and outreach is limited, due to the limited resources that are availed to the Electoral Commission. Lockdowns and curfews brought about by COVID-19 have constricted efforts to disseminate election-related information,” said ERC.
ERC added “Suspension of face-to-face civic and voter education activities in a bid to curb Covid-19 will, in the long term, perpetuate disinformation and political apathy. Inaccurate information shared on digital platforms tend to erode trust in political and electoral processes.
“In addition, newly adopted ways of information dissemination, such as virtual meetings or workshops and the use of digital platforms, take it for granted that the rural young population has access to the technology. Women also lag behind in political representation.”
ERC says the lack of face-to-face engagement will not only see voting statistics worsen in 2023 but will probably also exclude certain demographics from outreach programmes.
