DA shifts gears to urge youth to register to vote in the election
WITH just two weeks left before voter registration for the 2019 general election gets under way, the race is on to get more young people on the voters’ roll.
A campaign by the DA aims to do exactly this. The superpower.vote campaign calls on those who have not yet registered to do so when voter registration comes around – and offers potential voters a chance to win a car.
DA national spokesperson Solly Malatsi said the campaign was intended to entice young people to register to vote.
“It is the product of our extensive process to encourage young people to get involved in politics by unleashing their civic duty to realise their power to vote. There is one car to be won,” he said.
Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said all citizens had a responsibility to encourage people to participate in democracy.
“The DA has drawn most of its support from a mass political market which is young black people. The party has done something shrewd with this campaign,” he said.
Khumalo said he believed the DA and EFF stood a chance of getting a huge number of votes from young people, more so than the ANC.
“The ANC’s votes will mostly come from older people. The ANC targets older people using food parcels and talks of social grants,” he said.
IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said he hoped the DA’s campaign yielded positive results.
Meanwhile, provincial electoral officer Mawethu Mosery said while there was an improvement in the registration of young people, more effort was needed in this regard.
“Only 20 percent of the young population are registered to vote, so we are always looking to get the remaining 80 percent registered,” he said.
Mosery said the IEC welcomed campaigns like the DA’s and added that more of these – from organisations, state departments and traditional leaders – to increase voter registration among the young population were appreciated.