Among some of the key reforms that will be made under the new motion is the provision calling for the counting of ballots at polling stations and not at the polling districts and constituency headquarters as has been the case. The past practice was that ballots were collected from polling stations and ferried to constituency headquarters where they were counted.While the practice was convenient in that all ballots were brought to one centre, it was also fraught with problems. Under it, ballot papers had to be transported over long distances in many instances, thus delaying counting as voters grew anxious and often restless. The new system will definitely be faster and should lead to quicker tallies and announcement of results.There have also been allegations of ballot boxes being tampered with, between polling stations and counting stations. While little of these allegations were proven right, it is enough that some doubt was created in this process, hence it is incumbent upon those entrusted with conducting free and fair elections to do something to ensure that the process is beyond reproach.What is even more gratifying is that MPs from across the political divide saw sense in this motion and endorsed it. This is a positive development for our democracy and one that needs to be extended to more business in Parliament whose ultimate goal is the common good.
Ministry of Health fails on malaria
It is reported in the official Botswana Daily News that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, David Kahiya, has admitted that MoH has not done enough to mobilise partnerships in the malaria programme. According to the report in the Daily News of Tuesday August 25, 2009, Kahiya said, while there were global partners willing to give assistance, the ministry has failed to take advantage of such offers, thus denying Batswana an opportunity to help eradicate malaria from the world.We hope that the ministry will now learn from its mistake and gear itself up to take advantage and make-up for lost ground. We cannot afford to lose guard when malaria is such a deadly disease that has exacted a significant toll on lives, particularly in the Chobe and Ngamiland districts.
