As the journey to the 2025 General Elections gains momentum, the Youth and Society (YAS) has called on various electoral stakeholders in the country to heighten voter and civic education campaigns to achieve citizen participation in the electoral process.
YAS head of programmes, Louis Nkhata, highlighted that voter and civic education, especially on the reformed electoral laws, is crucial to ensure that all constituents—men and women alike—understand their rights, their political system and the laws governing the forthcoming general elections, to enable them to make informed decisions.
Nkhata made the call in Balaka on Friday during a district stakeholders’ dialogue meeting in preparedness for next year’s polls.
The call has come amidst revelations of a low turnout in the voter registration exercise currently underway in the country.
“I think, there is a need to clear out issues of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the electoral process. Such issues have the potential to bring forth serious implications as far as the whole electoral process is concerned,” said Nkhata.
He has since called on various electoral stakeholders to join forces and enhance sensitization campaigns on elections.
Concurring with Nkhata, Balaka District Chiefs’ council chairperson, iNkosi senior chief Chamthunya appealed to different stakeholders to make accurate information available and accessible to all the constituents regardless of their geographical positions.
“As traditional leaders, we would be happy to see that voter and civic education campaigns should seek to achieve universal coverage of the electorate by reaching out to typical villagers, disadvantaged groups and voters living in hard-to-reach areas.
“If the people are denied access to crucial information regarding the elections, this could trigger political intolerance which may result in chaos and civil unrest,” he explained.
The stakeholder’s dialogue meeting drew together representatives from civil society organisations, police, media, district council officials, faith-based leaders and political party representatives.
The interface meeting was conducted as part of the ‘Youth in Elections’ project with financial support from the Federal Republic of Germany-based—Zivik Foundation.
