As the voter registration for the 2024 General Election gets underway tomorrow, the leader of Madibelatlhopho says they will deploy their members at different polling stations to observe the exercise from a distance.
Although the Court of Appeal (CoA) has ruled in favour of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) against the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), thwarting it's (UDC)'s request to monitor the voter registration, Michael Keakopa says they are within their rights to monitor the exercise. The IEC will conduct the voter registration from tomorrow (January 5) until February 3.
Keakopa who is the head of Madibelatlhopho, a UDC group or arrangement which says it is aimed at monitoring elections to ensure they are fair, told MmegiOnline that contrary to the IEC’s statement issued earlier today, they have no intention of interfering with the voter registration process.
The IEC issued a statement earlier today expressing its concern that Madibelatlhopho had a statement circulating on social media suggesting that the observer group would defy the CoA’s ruling. The IEC called on all “stakeholders and voters” to “respect the laws governing” the electoral process.
Keakopa says they will now do their observations from outside the polling stations.
"Nothing has changed. We will be monitoring the registration since there is no law which is being violated. “The Electoral Act says we should be outside a 200 meter radius of polling stations and that’s on Election Day. “It is silent with regards to the registration days," Keakopa said.
The head of the observer group said Madibelatlhopho had no intention of defying the CoA ruling.
"No, not at all. That is part of the misinformation propagated by IEC and the (ruling) Botswana Democratic Party. “Our application to the court was to interdict the IEC and anyone else who could prevent us from monitoring registration within polling stations. “The CoA went against us but never said monitoring from outside polling stations is forbidden and never said we cannot be at polling stations," Keakopa stressed.
Earlier today, the IEC issued a strongly worded warning to Madibelatlhopho for what it said were attempts to intimidate voters and interfere with the registration process.
However, Keakopa rubbished these accusations and labelled the contents of the IEC’s as pure misinformation intended to portray the group in a bad light.
He said if anything, it is government that has carried out the intimidation of voters. He cited the deployment of police and members of the Special Support Group with anti-riot vehicles during the Serowe West by-election last year.
Furthermore, he also alleged that the IEC is always at variance with the law, which he said had led to the existence of Madibelatlhopho.
"Masisi has already violated the law; in this case the constitution itself which is Section 66 (7) when appointing the previous IEC secretary who was appointed on a contract. “The constitution says her appointment should have lasted until retirement age," he explained.
He said as political parties, they have been doing voter registration as part of their membership recruitment.
"This happens before, during and after IEC registration,” Keakopa said. “Already we have a database of our electorate of whom after they register with IEC will go back to us and inform us that indeed they have done so. “This can happen in multiple ways: they call or email or app our offices across the country, our structures across the country, or even near polling stations where our agents will be. “This is a voter driven exercise to secure their own registration and by extension their vote. “Absent this, the IEC will manipulate their information to ensure that they are unable to vote come October like it happened in October 2019.”
