A snap survey around Gaborone last Friday by Monitor revealed that most youth have received and understood the voter education messages that have been spread by the IEC recently. The majority of the youth said they understood the importance of voting and were eager to cast their votes in the upcoming general elections, thus raising hopes that the youth will vote in large numbers.
Oscar Mokhurutshe, a third-year University of Botswana (UB) student and a first time voter told Monitor that he decided to register for elections because he took it as his responsibility to have an input in the government decision making process. He said the current political landscape in the country is one of the things that will motivate him to cast his vote during Election Day because he believes that is the only way to try to rectify things if you are unhappy with the status quo. "I will vote for somebody I feel competent enough to represent me in Parliament so that tomorrow when I complain about the government I know that I am the one who put that person there," he said. As a first time voter, he said he is not sure about the voting procedure on polling day. "I just know that I have to take my valid national identity card (Omang) and election registration card with me to the polling station and I understand there will be some officers there waiting to help us on the procedures," he concluded.
