General elections: It is all systems go for IEC

PINI BOTHOKO
Correspondent | Friday August 30, 2013 00:00

FRANCISTOWN: Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Principal Election Officer Patricia Mmoloki has declared before a full council meeting which ended today that they were ready to officiate 2014 general elections.Mmoloki explained that the coming general elections would be their third elections to officiate and promised that they would be fair and accurate. She said their mandate is to conduct and supervise elections of members of the National Assembly and local authorities, ensure that elections are conducted efficiently, properly, freely and fairly.Mmoloki went on to say their vision is to be a reputable facilitator in enhancing democracy through an informed and participatory electorate. She pleaded with councillors to help inform and educate the electorate about all the necessary details pertaining to voting.'There was a population census in 2011 and there are changes in most of the districts and wards thus affecting polling stations and change of names of some wards and constituencies,' she said.

Mmoloki said that the delimitation report was released in March and some of the electorate are not aware of the changes made in their constituencies and this is where the councillors come in to pass the message to the public.'Establishment of new polling stations has been made and we trust you as councillors will help us make the electorate know about them so that people can register to vote,' said Mmoloki.She hoped that by October all Batswana would have been informed so as to be ready, by coming with valid identity cards (Omang) to register to vote.'It always hurts us to see elders coming to polling stations with invalid identity cards, thus being unable to vote. By then it is too late for them to make renewals.

Mmoloki reminded councillors that voter registration would start from October 4 to 27 this year, with the first supplementary registration in March 2014 and the second one three months later. 'The registration of voters is a long period of 23 days. So encourage the electorate to register within this period to avoid late registration. All stakeholders' involvement is critical to make the general elections a success,' she said.'We know and believe that political leadership has the power to persuade voters to appreciate the value of registration and voting,' said Mmoloki. She said they would hire Form Five leavers who would undergo two days training to prepare them to officiate during general elections.'They will have supervisors who will also be trained to be prepared for the elections. We do this so as to reduce errors and mistakes in the voters roll. If there are a lot of mistakes in the roll it affects elections,' she said.When commenting councillor Tabengwa Tabengwa of Ikageleng ward wanted to know if there would be an All Party Conference  (APC) as the last one was held in 2008.'Another thing is of continuous registration because you have not mentioned it in your representation. We want to know if it is still there for us to be aware,' she said.Ben Mpotokwane of Donga ward wanted to know how seriously they were with working with the Omang office to help Batswana obtain their cards.

'The majority of people are having problems with their Omang cards which will make it impossible to register. We want all Batswana to be able to register to vote,' he said. Ignatius Moswaane of Monarch South wanted to know if the IEC secretary was never influenced to take wrong decisions and wanted to know if it was not possible for parties to be funded.In response, Mmoloki said their mandate did not allow them to hold the APC and that the supplementary voters' registration covers continuous registration. She said that they had been working with the Omang office to speed up the process of getting identity cards so that all Batswana can register to vote.