The leader of the opposition Democratic Union of Zimbabwe (DUZ), party Robert Howard Chapman, believes that people who are eligible to vote but would rather not exercise their right, are more than those who support either ZANU PF or CCC.
Speaking on the programme “In Conversation with Trevor“, Chapman said his party wishes to capitalise on the voter apathy that has characterised recent elections where voter turnout has reportedly been about 35%. He said:
We looked at data to say would it be favourable if I ran, would people accept that? Then the second side of it was to also look and say was there a window for us to participate.
There was an opportunity for acceptance, and then the bigger tell-tale sign was this data showed that there was huge voter apathy. In fact, that group was larger than each of the parties individually.
Chapman believes the majority of Zimbabweans don’t vote mainly because they just don’t see a candidate who would change their lives.
Since the year 2000, Zimbabwean politics have been dominated by two parties, ZANU PF and MDC which has changed names to MDC-T, MDC Alliance, and now CCC.
