Youths get political leadership challenge

YOUNG people should try to contest the political leadership despite financial constraints and lack of experience, says Centre for Young Leaders in Africa (CYLA) executive director Jones Malungu. Mr. Malungu said youths could achieve seemingly insurmountable work if united and if they looked beyond their political preferences, opinions and tribe. He said this in Lusaka recently at the launch of “Enhancing Zambian Youth Participation in Governance through Electoral reforms project”. Mr Malungu prodded relevant institutions such as the police and the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Ministry of Justice to work on the findings and recommendations highlighted in the report such as the Public Order Act and exorbitant nomination fees. “It is with great joy and honour for me to officiate at this important event whose aim is to see to it that youths in Zambia have increased participation in governance issues. “It is vital that this group of the majority population plays an increased role to tackle some of the challenges the country is faced with,” he said He said the research findings of the questions asked indicated that 54.7 percent of young people had little knowledge of the laws that governed elections while 48.3 percent indicated that they were not interested in politics because they lacked financial capacity as well as politicians falling to keep their promises. Mr Malungu in his recommendations urged experienced and long serving politicians to groom the young generation and put in place deliberate interventions which would enable them occupy key positions. And Programme for Young People in Africa (PYPA) programme manager, Maria Jacobson reaffirmed her organisation’s support to CYLA in its continued effort to groom young people for leadership. The study was aimed at collecting information on electoral laws and how they affect and impact youth participation in governance through electoral reforms. CYLA is an organisation that has youth membership from eight political parties which include PF, UPND, MMD, FDD, NAREP, UNIP, ADD and the Green Party.