Give IEC more resources- Goya

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday March 12, 2010 00:00

Commenting on the budget allocation for the IEC on Wednesday, Goya said the IEC should also be provided with sufficient resources and staff to cover areas where it does not have offices instead of having members of the public travel long distances to access IEC services.

He said employees of the IEC work long and odd hours without overtime pay and that,  in some instances, officers of the IEC are unable to do their work when drivers are not on duty.

The IEC has been allocated P59 million for the 2010/11 financial year, a 30-percent decrease from last year's when it conducted general elections. The Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Lesego Motsumi, said she was satisfied with voter registration and turnout for the 2009 general elections and commended the IEC for the cordial relationship it had with other stakeholders such as religious organisations, the private sector, the media and NGOs.

'Their involvement in elections information dissemination helped to markedly increase the number of voters registered and of those who actually cast their votes,' she said.

The MO for Gaborone South, Kagiso Molatlhegi, urged government to review voter registration in order to allow people to register for elections wherever they may be. He called for the scrapping of polling facilities in foreign countries, saying it is costly and the people it is supposed to benefit are not interested.

The MP for Lobatse, Nehemiah Modubule, reintroduced his view that the date for elections should be prescribed in the Constitution and called for the revival of All-Party Conferences that used to discuss national issues. 

The MP for Ngwaketse, Mephato Reatile, said the IEC is so under-resourced that it is poorer than the ruling party, which splashes funds and distributes vehicles to constituencies during elections.