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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
WOMEN and youths dominate the number of registered voters ahead of the forthcoming elections this year.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) latest statistics show that from the 5,3 million people who registered to vote 54,5 percent of them are women and 45,5 percent are men.

The electoral commission statistics also show that youths between the ages of 18 to 34 constitute 43,5 percent of registered voters, followed by the 35 to 59 age group who make up 42,9 percent of registered voters. Zec also revealed that those who are 60 years and above make up 13,6 percent of registered voters.

In an interview yesterday, Zec commissioner Dr Qhubani Moyo said the electoral commission is satisfied with the exercise.

“We have seen an improved penetration into the traditional apathetic groups particularly the young people. It shows that the introduction of new technologies in the form of Biometric Voter Registration has created a new excitement among the digitally savvy population,” said Dr Moyo.

He said the registration demographics could also be a reflection of society as there are more women than men in the country.

Dr Moyo said the number of registered people also prove that members of the public are happy with how the commission has conducted itself so far towards administering a credible election.

Women Institute Leaders for Development (WILD), a nongovernmental organisation which was involved in mobilising people to register as voters said it was happy with women and youth dominating the registration figures. “From our perspective we attribute the dominance of the two groups to mobilisation efforts that we undertook as civil society organisations, as well as other agents. On our part we focused our energies on encouraging women to participate in political processes and their participation in electoral processes is one of them,” said WILD programmes officer Mr Mpumelelo Madlakela.

He said music concerts among other platforms that attracted members of the public were critical in enticing women and the youths to register as voters.

@nqotshili