Africa-Press – Botswana. Boteti District Council wards has nine new council wards adding to the existing 18 to make 27 council wards.
Secretary of the Independent Electoral Commission Mr Jefferson Siamisang said this when briefing Boteti District special council meeting on Tuesday August 15.
He said the commission considered the vastness and growing population as factors that contributed to the outcome of the demarcation exercise.
He implored councillors to sensitise and educate members of the public on the new polling stations and council wards.
He also urged them to encourage and motivate voters to register for elections during the registration exercise scheduled for the November 1 -30 this year.
Mr Siamisang stated that those eligible for registration should have an identity card and should be 18 years and above.
IEC secretary indicated that people should register at their appropriate polling station located in their area of residence.
Mr Siamisang raised concern that the main challenge experienced during registration was that voters were usually registered at polling stations they were not supposed to register at, a tendency common amongst politicians.
He cautioned that the tendency could tarnish the electoral process, noting that a voter was at liberty to choose the place of registration.
Voter trafficking he said was prohibited, indicating that section 25 of the electoral act allowed each and every person to transfer registration and should provide valid reasons for the transfer. The Electoral Act, he said, should be respected and applied as is.
He cited that reasons for transfer could include marriage reasons and transfer of duty station among others.
Mr Siamisang said they had realised a lot of discrepancies on the voters roll during the previous elections due to inexperienced staff engaged during registration.
He stated that there were instances where some of the people had registration cards but were not in the voters’ roll.
The aim he said was to engage unemployed form five school leavers with supervision from public officers as opposed to unemployed diploma graduates, indicating that the intention was to engage retired public officers who were not actively involved in politics to ensure there was skills transfer.
When commenting Councillor Mathias Mbaeva of Toromoja requested explanation as to how the electoral commission would identify retirees who were not active in politics, raising concern that majority of the retirees were active in politics.
Councillor Ketshwereng Galeragwe of Letlhakane East said the public should be sensitised and educated about the new polling stations and council wards before registration could take place, expressing concern that it led to a lot of transfers.
He also indicated that department of Civil and National Registration should be encouraged to renew identity cards of people on time. Councillor Galeragwe was also against recruitment of retirees.
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