Register as voter or hold your peace for five years

IEBC had targeted to enlist six million new voters during the first phase but only managed 1,519,294. [Renson Mnyamwezi, Standard]

The second and final leg of the voter registration exercise kicks off today. The exercise will run up to February 6, this year. That is a total of 21 days.

Within that period, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission hopes to register some 4.5 million eligible voters who, for reasons best known to themselves, did not come forward to be listed during the first phase of Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration exercise which ran from October 4 to November 5, 2021.

The electoral agency had targeted to enlist six million new voters during the first phase but only managed 1,519,294.

Notably, registration clerks had an easy time during the month-long exercise as their targets, mostly young people who had turned 18 not long ago, chose to give the exercise a wide berth. As a result, time and money were wasted.

We can only pray and hope that they will come out in their numbers this time round. What these young ones need to know is that they ceased to be children once they turned 18. They are therefore expected to start acting like adults by, among others, taking part in elections.

The importance of voting in an election cannot be gainsaid. When we pick leaders at the ballot, we decide the direction that our country should take. If we choose good leaders, we put our country smack on the road to prosperity and stability. If we choose bad leaders, we station our country on the precipice of economic and political instability.

As has been said for the umpteenth time, adults who don’t vote have no moral standing to complain when things go awry in the hands of the leaders they would have helped to sideline through the ballot.

By not voting, they help to create the mess and should therefore ought to hang their heads in shame until another chance crops up to vote for more responsible leaders. Go out and register as a voter today. A voter’s card is your ticket to a better future.