By Jeffrey Muvundisi
Former vice president and Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) leader Joice Mujuru yesterday kicked off a campaign to get younger voters to the polls in 2018.
Mujuru told an audience at the White City Youth Arena here that youths must register to vote ahead of elections.
“I urge you to refuse to be used by politicians to commit whatever crimes as we head towards the elections. You should unite, and mobilise each other to go and register to vote for the next elections to be able to remove this government that has caused immeasurable damage to this country.
“Things will remain the same if you do not register to vote. Change will never come through attending rallies and sloganeering but registering to vote and voting on the polling day,” she said.
Mujuru’s campaign is worried that some polls show voters under the age of 30 might not turn out in great numbers at polling stations in the 2018 general elections, potentially giving an advantage to President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF.
She said she only needed the missing youths’ vote to step into State House at the next elections.
“I am the bridge towards a better future, a better life for all,” Mujuru told the youths.
“Mugabe is 92, I am 61, and we have a 31-year age difference. Mugabe represents the past, represents failures, whereas I, Mujuru, am the bridge to forming the next government that will bring change to Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.”
The widow to the late decorated liberation struggle icon and army general Solomon Mujuru rallied youths to register, a move she said was the first step in the right direction towards unseating the Zanu PF government.
Opposition to the president is strongest among youths in urban areas, such as Harare, where frustration has been fuelled by unemployment, corruption and crumbling public services.
Mujuru met the youths before meeting ZPF women at Amphitheatre, the two components of the party that she said were key in bringing the much-needed change in Zimbabwe.
Former vice president at Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Samuel Sipepa-Nkomo, who was among the top officials who attended the two rallies, told the youths that he felt energised and excited to be part of the ZPF team in a “robust partnership to remove Mugabe”. Daily News
