End the legal impasse

Mmegi Editor | Monday November 27, 2023 06:00

Registration for elections is a crucial process that will ultimately help eligible Batswana to elect leaders of their choice for both the councils and Parliament.

The winners will ultimately form a government. Initially, the registration exercise was billed for November 1 to 30, 2023, but could not materialise after the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), one of the parties contesting the 2024 General Election, rushed to court on an urgent motion seeking for its clerks to observe the registration exercise. Ever since, the court case has been taking many twists and turns as both sides of the matter continue to raise legal arguments in support of their cases.

The UDC contends that massive ‘rigging’ of the elections commences with the registration exercise, whereupon people are ‘ferried’ from other areas to boost numbers to help them win the elections. In recognition of the significance of this exercise, which adds so much value to our democratic values, it is however, our observation that whilst we cherish the rights of individuals including the right to seek redress from the courts of law, we persuade the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to strike a balance between delivering a clean voter registration exercise and playing around with the provisions of the law, which has seen political parties moving in circles. We know for certain that the position of the IEC, a department in the Office of the President (OP), is that the demand of the UDC is not supported by any legal provision to grant them their wish.

For the sake of the anxious voters, we would like to encourage the elections monitoring body, (IEC) that time is a very crucial element in the process of registration of voters and at no time shall it (time) wait for anyone.

Traditionally, Botswana holds the national polls in October during every election year.

Now, all indications are that we are slowly running out of time, more so that time has to be created to collate data in the first registration and where possible call for supplementary registration exercise to register more people. It does not seem the current cases before the courts of law are going to end anytime soon and before we know it, there will be no time left to do proper things before the actual day of the elections. It is, therefore, very important to go back to the drawing board and for the parties before the court to remember that it is the ordinary citizens, the ones who also employ the politicians through their votes who are currently left in a state of confusion watching the parties before court slug it out.

The cases before the court might leave Batswana disillusioned which might further occasion unnecessary voter apathy if not handled properly. It is time the warring parties come to their senses and resolve the legal impasse. There is also fear that the delay might occasion a constitutional crisis if it drags on.