AG unaware of 2019 voter registration dates
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday August 25, 2017 16:23
Recently, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) made an early announcement of the registration dates for the 2019 general elections. The IEC announced that it would conduct registration from September 3 to November 11, 2018 for those eligible to vote in the 2019 general elections.
The commission said the decision was largely due to the amendment of the Electoral Act, which replaced Section 8 of the Electoral Act.
Section 8 of the Electoral Act provided for supplementary and continuous registration of voters. On Wednesday, Gabriel Komboni, the attorney acting for the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) against the AG, chairperson of the IEC and secretary to the IEC, expressed shock after Mathogonolo Phuthego, counsel for the AG, stated that he was unaware that the IEC has announced dates for registration of the 2019 elections.
This was after Komboni told the court that he received a letter from the IEC dated August 21 notifying him of dates for registration for the 2019 elections.
According to the letter, there will only be one registration phase for the 2019 elections, which will run from September 3 to November 11. Komboni said the letter has already been published in the Government Gazette.
“The upshot of this letter is that voters will only have one chance to register for the elections while the elections will be almost a year away to be held. Generally, our elections in Botswana are held in October after every five years. Anybody who turns 18 after the registration period has closed would be deprived of the right to vote. This will affect people who will be indisposed,” Komboni said.
Komboni added that voters whose Omang cards have expired and those who would have traveled overseas for various reasons would be adversely affected by the general registration period of September 3 to November 11, 2018. He added: “We submit that this amendment of the Electoral Act violates the constitution which entitles people who are eligible to exercise their voting rights. We therefore submit that we have good prospects of success in this matter. The court should allow the matter to proceed and be determined on its merits. We urge the court to grant us condonation of late filing of our declaration and dismiss the AG’s application with costs.”
Komboni said he was surprised that Phuthego was not aware of the general registration date published in the Gazette on August 7.
“The AG is the one tasked with the responsibility of drafting government notices. The notice that I was served with was certainly drafted by the AG but I am surprised that the AG claims that it is not aware of such notice which is also already in the public domain,” said Komboni. In response, Phuthego said is he was not aware of the letter that Komboni was talking about. “If the plaintiff has a case, they should rather apply for the time of registration closer to the elections date. We don’t see any reason how bringing forward the date of registration contravene the election. There is also no reason how the cancellation of supplementary registration of elections violates the constitution,” Phuthego said.
Supporters from across the political spectrum filled the public gallery.
Even the former secretary of IEC, Gabriel Seeletso, who was appointed EVMs coordinator after retiring from the public service, was also in attendance. On Wednesday, the AG wanted the BCP’s suit to be dismissed because the BCP had filed its declaration nine days out of time. Among other reliefs, the BCP says that all sections of the Electoral (Amendment) Act No. 7 of 2016, which provide for the replacement of voting by Ballot Paper by EVMs, to be declared unconstitutional and in violation of Section 32 (3) (c) of the Constitution of Botswana and be struck out.