A MASVINGO-BASED civic society group has launched a solo voter education and mobilisation campaign to conscientise people in the province on the importance of being on the voters’ roll and being able to vote in next year’s general elections. BY SILAS NKALA
The Masvingo Community Action Accountability Teams (CAATs) said its teams conducted door-to-door campaigns in Gutu, Bikita and Zaka districts last week.
“As part of mobilising community members to register to vote, CAATs conducted door to door campaigns where they mobilised community members to register to vote under the biometric voter registration (BVR) exercise. During the two days, the CAATs mobilised a combined total of 234 community members who managed to register to vote. Among them were 145 women and 89 men,” the civic group said in a statement.
CAATs also conducted interface dialogue meetings with community leaders, so as to address the increasing number of human rights violations emanating from the BVR process.
“At the interface meetings, it was noted that most traditional leaders were receiving directives from Zanu PF local leadership to compile serial numbers of voter registration slips from community members. CAATs members who facilitated the interface dialogue meetings encouraged people to report any human rights violations emanating from the BVR process to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) for redress.”
“The exchange visits by CAATs seek to build social cohesion and resonate with the organisation’s ‘#13million Voices for Peace Campaign’, a campaign that seeks to encourage and mobilise citizens to pledge for peace ahead of the harmonised elections slated for 2018. In the past, CAATs carried out BVR monitoring exercises and through the facilitation of Heal Zimbabwe, managed to report cases of human rights violations around the BVR to the ZHRC.”
