By Sabina Elago
WINDHOEK– Eighty five percent of the Namibian youth have registered to vote making the STOPWAITING campaign a massive success.
The campaign was a Youth Election Drive that was designed to mobilise Namibian’s youth to register before the March 2nd in Phase 1 and then actively take part in the National Assembly and Presidential Elections in Phase 2.
According to statistics released by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), a total of 1,158,925 voters have registered during the general registration of voters with 44%, the largest percentage of the voters who have registered falling in the 18 to 32 years age group with the born-free (those born after 21 March 1990) making up 19.73% of registered voters. Against a total Namibian youth population of around 600,000 the above figure represents 85% youths who have registered. “The youth of Namibia have truly stood up and made their presence felt during the General Registration of voters. However, we should not rest on our laurels but continue to engage the youth and inspire them to go out and actually vote during the November Presidential and National Assembly elections,” says an ECN officer
Voter apathy in Namibia has become a serious concern, as statistically turnout has slowly declined since the first general election in 1989, and in this case the youth really try their best, says Beatrice Kotungondo, the Deputy Chairperson of the National Youth Council Board. “Our objective and focus was not on what will we get at the end of the day but to see if we stand together as one Namibian youth, and how can we change this situation ourselves. This was also to show our leaders that we are very serious with what we are doing,” says Kotungondo.
She further adds that the campaign was not only to get the youth to register but to also get them to mobilise.