ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections Zambia Kenya 33 34 Zimbabwe 2011 18 to 24 20.61% 2013 18 to 25 16.86% 2013 18 to 25 4.51% For registration rates of youth voters to approximate the 2012 Census another 400,000 voters between the ages of 18 to 29 needs to be registered. This would have entailed adjusting the voter registration process by the electoral commission to deliberately target young people and increase the registration rate of this important part of the population. 3. More Problems with Under-Registration of Youths and Over-Registration of the Elderly in Urban Wards than Rural Wards When official registration data is analysed by urban/rural and age data, it reveals a different experience between urban and rural wards for young voters seeking to register, as well as for the removal of dead people from the voters’ roll. Registration of 18 to 22-year-olds is 0.61 per cent higher in rural wards than in urban wards. In the 23 to 29-year-old category, registration in rural wards is 2.42 per cent higher than in urban wards. For 70 to 79-year-olds, the percentage of registered voters in rural wards is 3.97 per cent greater than in urban wards, while for voters 80 years old or older the percentage of registered voters in rural wards is 5.87 per cent higher than in urban areas. Because registered voters between the ages of 30 and 69 are predominantly existing voters rather than new voters, the difference in registration rates is largely due to factors affecting young voters and older registrants, rather than factors related to voters in the 30 to 69-year-old category. ZESN’s analysis also showed over-registration of elderly voters in all wards (urban and rural), with approximately 250,000 names of individuals who are likely to have died whose names have not been removed from the voters’ roll. Table: 4 Table 4: Comparison of Registered Voters in Urban and Rural Wards by Age Age 33 34 Voters’ Roll 19 June 2013 Difference Per cent Avaialble at <http://www.elections.org.zm/media/31072011_registered_voters_per_constituency.pdf>. Available at <http://www.iebc.or.ke/index.php/media-center/press-releases/item/age-gender-matrix-per-county>. 34 | P a g e