Zambia youth seek to embrace democracy

Gilbert Chisenga, Zambia's representative in the Regional Youth Caucus of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), participated in a voter education initiative designed to encourage young people to exercise their democratic rights by voting in this September's presidential, National Assembly and local government elections in Zambia. 

From his base in the offices of the National Youth Constituency Assembly (NYCA) in Chipata in Zambia's Eastern Province, Mr Chisenga travelled across the country, delivering workshops that encouraged young people to participate in the elections.  

"Our goal was to restore young people's confidence in the electoral process," said Mr Chisenga.

"In Zambia's last tripartite elections in 2001, there was a high level of voter apathy among the youth. And it was only a few months ago that the new Electoral Act and Code of Conduct came into effect. Many young people were unaware of what the new law and regulations meant to them." 

Zambia's new Electoral Act was passed into law in May 2006, and the Electoral Code of Conduct, which sets out the regulations under which elections are to be conducted, came into effect in August. On 5 August, the NYCA organised its first workshop in Solwezi, in the North-Western Province. This was followed by three others in Choma in the Southern Province, Chipata, and the capital Lusaka. 

"We sought to encourage young people to participate not only as voters, but also as candidates at local government and parliamentary level, and as monitors on polling day," stated Mr Chisenga.

"We were pleased that voter turnout was high in the elections, especially among young people. It was encouraging to see that several young people ran as candidates in these elections and that some were elected to office." 

The CYP's Regional Youth Caucus is a network of national youth representatives co-ordinated in the Africa region by the CYP's Africa Centre in Lusaka.  

"The CYP has a long history of collaborating with the NYCA", said Nellie Munala, Programme Manager at the Africa Centre. 

"Their goals are closely aligned with those of our Governance, Development and Youth Networks programme, which seeks to promote young people's participation in governance and democratic processes and enable their voice to be heard in decision-making forums at the local, national and international level. And we have provided support for several of their activities, such as organising youth parliaments and training workshops." 

The Africa Centre is one of four regional centres of the CYP. The others are in India for the Asia region, Guyana for the Caribbean, and Solomon Islands for the South Pacific.

Secretariat Links:

• CYP Africa Regional Centre
• Zambia Country Profile
• Democracy