IEC urged to adopt electronic voter registration
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday February 28, 2020 18:35
In their view, the setup should be embraced for the 2024 general elections.
The participants said electronic voter registration would curb voter trafficking whereby one yard could be used to register more than 10 people and unnecessary transfers.
Briefing the stakeholders, IEC secretary, Keireng Zuze said for 2019 general elections, they recorded the highest transfers ever with 8, 219 registration transfers processed.
The workshop resolved that there was need for IEC Act to be reviewed so that electronic voter registration could be introduced.
“This could help in a situation where a voter has registered at Gabane, but finds his or her name in a different constituency,” one attendant said.
“The system will help to ensure that names of registered voters are well captured in the voters’ roll. IEC should review the procedures for vote counting such that it is done at polling stations and results posted there.”
The stakeholders also called for electoral reforms to legislate for continuous voter registration and to engineer a system responsive to the dynamics of the country.
On a different note, the stakeholders also complained that election petitions should not be made expensive since they kill democracy in the country and there must be standard amount for them.
In his contribution, IEC chairperson, Abednego Tafa who will not be the chair in 2024 general election reminded the stakeholders that; “we will facilitate submission of the recommendations to the Executive Arm of Government, which may result in possible electoral reforms in readiness for the 2024 General Elections”.
Moreover, he said, “Voter education, when embarked on in a robust and inclusive way, will assist in the creation of an enabling environment for elections. The enhancement of civic and voter education programmes and systems will help motivate citizen involvement and intensify electoral participation”.
IEC spokesperson, Osupile Maroba said all recommendations and resolutions would be made final after completing the workshop and they would be submitted to the relevant body.
“It will be up to legislators to ensure that the Act is reviewed. Even our attorneys will make some recommendations, especially that we recorded high numbers of appeals last year,” he said.
In 2016, Legal Reforms Electoral (Amendment) Act of 2016: introducing Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), which included abolition of supplementary voter registration, did not see the light of the day.
The Act did not have a commencement date. It was suspended in August 2018 and ultimately repealed in April 2019. Botswana Democratic Party communications chairperson, Kagelelo Kentse said as a party they would discuss the resolutions and see how they could benefit the country.
“Even though we did not attend that meeting, the electronic voter registration would be a good move. It could also speed up the process of registration and curb voter trafficking which we always complain about as politicians,” Kentse said.
Kentse said he does not believe that his party would reject the resolution.
However, Umbrella for Democratic Change spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa said they have taken a resolution not to participate in IEC workshops because it took part in election rigging in 2019 general elections.
“I do not think it will be advisable for us to comment on that issue,” Mohwasa said.
Alliance for Progressives leader, Pius Mokgware said it would a big problem to adopt that resolution because people in rural areas were not computer literate.
“This thing will not be sustainable because already the country has a serious problem of power or network. Again, there must be assurance that the system will not be hacked,” Mokgware said.