Research calls for Electoral Act amendment
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday January 31, 2023 06:00
Some of the recommendations are that the counting of ballots should be done at the polling stations to allay fears of cheating and rigging.
It stated that this recommendation, which has been repeatedly made during elections audit workshops, is in accordance with SADC principles and guidelines governing democracy and elections and the African Charter on democracy, elections and governance.
The DRP report was done by the IEC and the University of Botswana. “IEC should make every effort to reach people with disabilities at home so that they can register and vote. This requires the introduction of mobile polling stations.
As per the SADC norms and standards on free, fair and credible elections, and indeed practice all over the world, indelible ink must be used during voting to deal with issues surrounding multiple voting,” the report says.
The report further indicates that technology could be used to shorten queuing times and, more broadly, to encourage young people to vote. In addition, it states that polling stations must be open for more than 12 hours on election day to give people who work on election day an opportunity to cast their votes after work. It also recommends that the mandate of the IEC should be expanded to cover vote and civic education, campaign financing and constituency delimitation.
And that would mean that the IEC must be given more resources to improve voter and civic education, which are of critical importance to ensuring that eligible voters appreciate the importance of registering and voting.
The report indicates that this should be a continuous exercise as opposed to the current situation whereby the exercise is carried out on the eve of elections. Moreover, the recommendations say the IEC must be guaranteed institutional independence in the law establishing it in the Constitution. Further requesting that the Constitution must be amended to remove IEC from the Ministry for State President and place it under Parliament (just like South Africa’s Chapter 9 institutions of which the IEC is part of).
It says the IEC must not just be independent, but it must also be seen to be independent for it to enjoy the trust and confidence that it needs to manage credible elections. However, the recommendations called for the name of the Election Management Body (EMB) to be changed from the IEC to the Electoral Commission Botswana (ECB). It says the word “Independent” tends to pre-empt questions regarding the status of the EMB as it is assumed that its independence is captured and guaranteed by the name. It says the proposed name is in line with similar bodies in South Africa and Namibia.