20 Aug 2014

Preparations and logistics for the national elections are on course.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) senior elections Officer, Ms Nametsegang Boleseng said in an interview that following the announcement of election date which is October 24, IEC intensified its preparedness.

She said after dissolution of Parliament on August 29, the President was expected to issue the writ of elections that would be declaring the 57  constituencies vacant. She said issuance of writ will enable IEC to set aside nomination day for prospective parliamentary candidates.

On one hand, the minister of local government and rural development will also issue an instrument that would declare the 490 council seats countrywide vacant.

She said voter registration had been completed and all three rolls certified and awaiting amalgamation upon issuance of writ of elections by the President. Ms Boleseng said recruitment of the poll staff had started and was continuing. 

She said they had identified returning officers for the districts and that the poll staff would be trained, followed by distribution of polling material. She said adequate resources had been availed to enable IEC to undertake their work effectively.

Meanwhile, IEC principal public relations officer, Mr Osupile Maroba said in an interview with one of the private radio stations that IEC had secured papers to print ballot papers and that they were waiting for nominations so that they know who was standing where, in order to produce area specific ballot papers.

He said this year there had been a few challenges with regards to election preparations. Mr Maroba said 32 meetings had been conducted throughout the country with stakeholders, particularly prospective candidates to share such challenges with them.

He said the amount of applications for people transferring their registration from where they initially registered was alarming. "Even though the law allows for Batswana to transfer whenever they have situations beyond their control, it happened that the rate at which people are transferring is so high and we felt we should share this with stakeholders,” he said.

He said stakeholders had been informed in order to find out what could be the reasons for transferring. “It is a baffling occurrence to everyone else, but we wish that when we come to a stage of evaluation of elections, where we have to explain to the public, they will be able to appreciate some of the reasons and the courses so that we work out the solutions."

At the moment, he said they could only monitor the situation for future reference during evaluation. So far, 824 073 voters had been registered, which was 13.54 per cent over the 725 817 registered for the 2009 elections and 26 per cent below the target (1 120 000) the commission had set for itself. ENDS