THE Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) in Mwense, Luapula Province has embarked on a voter registration sensitisation programme.
FODEP has embarked on the sensitisation programme to supplement the exercise being carried out by the Electoral Commission of Zambia.
FODEP district coordinator Friday Lungu said yesterday that the sensitisation meetings would be undertaken with the help of drama performances and sports activities such as football.
“We want to supplement what ECZ is doing. We are using the drama groups who are performing near registration centers so that people can easily register as voters. We have also organised some sports activities as you know football is a crowd puller,” Mr Lungu said.
Mr Lungu said some people would not register as voters because the mobile issuance of National Registration Cards (NRCs) exercise had started when the ECZ programme was coming to an end.
He appealed to the ECZ to consider extending the programme so that the majority of the youths who would be issued with NRCs could also register as voters.
“We hope that ECZ extends the programme to cater for the majority of the youths who are getting their NRCs otherwise our efforts might be in vain,” he said.
Mr Lungu also implored youths to turn up in numbers and register as voters after acquiring their NRCs before tomorrow, when the exercise wound up.
He appealed to the Ministry of Home Affairs to come up with a proper deployment plan as they implemented the NRC mobile issuance exercise.
Mr Lungu said people were scrambling to get their NRCs, while others were coming from very far places because they were not sure if the exercise would be conducted in their areas.
“These officers from NRCs do not have the deployment plan. They do not know how long they will stay at one station and where they will go next.
This has created panic to the general public,” he said.
Phase three of the mobile NRC exercise in the province commenced last week while the mobile voter registration programme would come to a a close tomorrow. — ZANIS