In November last year, the Secretary of the IEC, in trying to get political parties and government on board, organised an election observation/benchmarking mission comprising the two Ministers politically in charge of elections; the Ministers of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration and Local Government and Rural Development and three Parliamentarians. Currently, the IEC, the Presidency and three MPs and three councillors are in India, Chennai and Bangalore for further benchmarking which includes election observation and visit to the manufacturer of the EVMs.
The roles of the Offices of the President and Local Government and Rural Development in elections are well documented; the President appoints the IEC Secretary, he or she dissolves Parliament and issues a Writ of Elections, in other words he sets the election day, he or she issues a writ for by elections of MPs and nominates specially elected MPs and the Vice President. The Presidency through the Directorate of Public Service Management controls the IEC staff in terms of HR issues and is responsible for resources of the IEC, it is the Minister in the Presidency who presents and defends the IEC budget in Parliament, he or she answers all questions relating to the IEC. More or less the same can be said about the Minister of Local Government on Councillors’ elections. The two Ministers were accompanied by three Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). The group observed regional and local government elections in Windhoek polling stations including the location of Katutura. The team also had the chance to be educated on the EVM by the Namibian Electoral Commission which has used the system in their 2014 Presidential and Parliament and 2015 Regional and Local elections. The team observed how the EVMs work in Namibia and appreciated how they have significantly improved their electoral process particularly long queues and the process of reconciliation or tallying and counting.
