Troubles with voter registration
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday November 20, 2023 06:00
“This shows that there is a problem with the national elections registration exercise under the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as people still find a way of registering ineligible people,” Ramogapi alleges in an interview this week.
His main concern is that political parties are deliberately given short notice to examine the voters’ rolls by the IEC and raise objections to the registration of ineligible people.
Ramogapi highlighted a worrying tendency by politicians from across the political divide whom he says ‘abuse’ the registration process and decried voter trafficking that he says is so embedded such that people amass numbers through ‘outsiders’ to win the elections.
“Voter trafficking is so embedded that all politicians thrive on it. Imagine, during polling day people ferried from outside polling districts unable to know where the shops in an area are located?” he explained indicating that it could only apply to strangers.
He cited an incident in Bobirwa in the past where a nominated councillor from the ruling party found himself in the hands of the police for mass trafficking of voters during the elections. This was after some concerned politicians he said, had lodged a complaint on voter trafficking of potential voters.
He also quickly remembered another incident in which a council candidate unduly influenced the person who registered for the elections in the village to do the registration outside the registration station (at the officer’s house) and outside prescribed hours. The politician had reportedly ferried the people from outside the area to boost his numbers. The needful was done and the registration of ineligible persons was objected and they were removed from the voters’ roll.
Reminisced Ramogapi who is the legislator for Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) for Palapye: “ In Palapye, one of my council candidates in the 2019 General Election, had trafficked people from as far as Serowe whom she had registered to vote for her. This is after she had accidentally dropped a number of voters’ cards of people she had trafficked from the neighbouring village.”
The woman (name known to Mmegi) would later confess that she had indeed trafficked the voters from Serowe after a Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) council candidate had objected to the issue and she admitted.
Ramogapi is adamant that there should be a systematic way of curbing voter trafficking as it exaggerates winners at the polls.
Meanwhile, around 2005 prior to a by-election at Block-1 in Francistown, the media reported an incident in which about 37 people were registered at a three-bedroomed family house belonging to the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) candidate Martha Motswere who would later lose the by-election to Tabengwa Tabengwa of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
The media was able to trace some of the people who were registered using the Motswere residential house some of whom resided in Matshelagabedi, Tonota, Matsiloje and other villages around Francistown. The explanations they gave was that, people had just picked their identity cards and registered them in their absence without notifying them about their intentions.
These are the people who had voted in the 2004 General Election and would only be caught a few months down the line after the passing on of the incumbent councillor who was also the husband to the BDP candidate, Motswere.
UDC spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa is worried that the whole issue of voter registration is spoiled by people whom he alleges have more than one national identity cards, “and can register in more than one areas.”
He is also concerned about people who abuse a system by cornering the registration officers and register people residing outside specific areas so that they can vote for them.
“As a party, we know of people who had more than one national identity cards and had voted in the last polls. We are also aware of voter trafficking that is prevalent during registration and we are saying this is not good for our democracy regardless of who is doing it,” emphasised Mohwasa.
At the BCP, party spokesperson Mpho Pheko told Mmegi that her party is worried about the fact that it once issued a democracy alert on the problems associated with the Electoral Act, which she says has mostly been overtaken by events.
“Voter trafficking during the registration exercise is a very big problem. I have been a candidate before, we have seen high numbers of people registered in just one residential house,” explained the BCP spokesperson.
Pheko stated that voter trafficking happens across all the parties but indicated that, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) stands at an advantage as the party in government. She said even the IEC has owned up on voter trafficking in some of their meetings with the parties and other stakeholders.
She highlighted that the BCP has always decried that there should be electoral reforms which should be geared at reforming our electoral processes. She also pointed out that it doesn’t seem the IEC has the capacity to effectively deal with all the complaints raised. Pheko emphasised: “Electoral reforms are key in this respect so that our democracy is guarded against any forms of abuse.”
Meanwhile in a 2018 BOPA reports that the IEC principal election officer in Maun, Guylord Ralokwae had concurred with some members of the Party Liaison Committee (PLC) that trafficking of voters from one polling station to another is not only undemocratic but also a crime.
He revealed during a committee meeting that Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has increased fines for such crime from P4 000 to P7 500 and stressed the need for committee members to intensify education to sensitise the communities about the development.
It doesn’t seem even the increase in fines is sufficient to deter voter trafficking which politicians say is so embedded that in some cases is almost ‘normalised’.
In response to allegations of voter trafficking prevalent during the registration exercise and other levels of the elections, BDP spokesperson, Kagelelo Kentse told Mmegi this week:" The BDP has never done a deliberate research around voter trafficking. We therefore, don't have researched data whether there is voter trafficking or not."
Kentse further indicated that they have only heard of such incidents in which an MP candidate was alleged to have decided to ferry his family members from Gaborone and registered them to go and vote for him in say, Maun for instance.