BY STEPHEN CHIDANGA A MIDLANDS-BASED civic society organisation has launched an online platform on which youth candidates from different political parties debate their manifestos ahead of the 2023 elections.
The Zimbabwe Organisation for Youth in Politics (ZOYP) said the platform named Aspirant Forum gives the electorate an opportunity to interrogate aspiring candidates instead of voting them based on their political affiliation.
At the launch of the platform Gokwe recently, ZOYP programmes officer Polite Ndlovu said: “Our aim as a youth organisation is to help voters elect competent leaders as they (voters) will do so from an informed point of view.
“We want to develop a culture whereby people choose candidates not because of their political affiliation, but based on the issues they promise to deliver in their preferred constituencies. We also urge young people to run for political office in the coming 2023 elections.”
A Constitutional Amendment has proposed 10 youth quota seats in Parliament.
But youth-based civic groups protesting lack of youth representation from the district up to the national level last year petitioned Parliament demanding a 30% quota.
The country’s youth represent over 60% of the population and about 44% of the total voters’ roll.
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