Mmegi

BCP moves to compel IEC to release digital voters roll

The BCP filed a complaint with the Judge President of the Court of Appeal Tau
The BCP filed a complaint with the Judge President of the Court of Appeal Tau

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has filed a case with the Maun High Court urgently seeking that the court compels the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to provide the party with a digital voters roll.

This comes just a day after BCP President, Dumelang Saleshando announced at a press briefing that the party had identified that some people had registered to vote more than once in different areas.

Through attorneys, Monthe Marumo & Co, the BCP filed a complaint with the Judge President of the Court of Appeal Tebogo Tau to the effect that it settled for an urgent application which was submitted to the Civil Registry on Thursday morning but had not received any communication by mid day.

“In brief, the application filed seeks certain declaratory orders aimed at compelling the IEC to amongst others provide our clients with a digital copy of the voters roll for the national poll scheduled to take place on the 30th October, 2024. We have throughout the morning, made follow up to seek to establish why in this era of information high way, an urgent application should take seven hours to be registered. We have not received any explanation for the delay and are accordingly unable to advice clients save that the Chief Justice is still being consulted,” Phenyo Sekape wrote on behalf of the attorneys.

Sekape further wrote that their clients have a constitutionally entrenched right in terms of Section 95 of the Constitution to due process and to a forum which is lawfully constituted to fairly and expeditiously hear their case.

Sekape laments that what happened on Thursday is an antithesis of the rule of law and a travesty of democracy.

“We do not want to believe that the delay is part of the usual unauthorised interference with the case management process done under the guise of Section 6 of the High Court Act where Judges are handpicked to adjudicate over matters. If that is the intention, we wish to register our objection to the said process in so far as such a body would not constitute a Judicial body in terms of Section 95 of the Constitution and in so far as Section 6 of the High Court Act does not allow the picking and choosing of Judges by any individual,” he states.

The attorneys argue that the aforegoing development in the context of the subject matter of this litigation is particularly disturbing in a democratic order. They state that the purpose of a Court is to dispense justice to each individual who comes before it adding that a Court not constituted as per the law is not a Court and is incapable of dispensing justice.

“We wish to record that as at the time this letter was generated, our clients are still in limbo as to their rights to access Courts on account of a deliberate and calculated move to interfere with judicial process. This conduct dissipates confidence in the judiciary and result in the rule of law being undermined completely. We are currently restraining members of our clients from marching to the High Court to demand registration of their case in Maun as we believe it is a matter that should not have taken this turn,” he states.

Sekape further states that their clients remain anxious, understandably so considering the purpose for which they have approached the Court on urgency seeking to protect their rights in so far as it relates to their participation in the upcoming General Elections due to take place on the 30th October, 2024.

“We are concerned that the urgency that we seek to envoke continues to dissipate with every passing hour due to circumstances only known to the Administration of Justice, further that, our clients' right to access Court is potentially trampled upon owing to the uncertainty and delay in so far as it relates to the urgent application sought to be filed with the Court is concerned. We further note that such delay is rather unprecedented,” he states.

Sekape cautions Justice Tau that they believe it will not become necessary that they settle an application for mandamus. A mandamus is an official order from a court of law stating that a person or organisation must do a particular thing: A court may issue a writ of mandamus to force a public official to perform a mandated act.

Editor's Comment
The people have spoken

In fact, early election results in some areas across the country, speak to large voter turnout which suggests that voters crowded at polling stations to decide appropriately. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) revealed that 80% of the 1,037,684 people who had registered to vote turned up to exercise their right.It’s unfortunate that at the time of cobbling this editorial comment, results had just started trickling in. We recognise that...

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