Africa-Press – Botswana. Despite failing to achieve its intended target, there is no guarantee that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will open for a supplementary registration following the closure of registration for the 2024 General Elections on February 3.
This was revealed by IEC secretary, Mr Jefferson Siamisang when giving an update on the recently closed registration exercise.
Mr Siamisang said that a total of 736 424 individuals registered, 734 781 of whom registered locally while a total of 1 643 registered in the diaspora.
“Although Botswana has a total of about 1.7 million eligible voters, we had set ourselves a target of about 1.3 million, but as it stands we have only achieved about 54 per cent.
Normally when we set our target we are informed by the past registration trends,” he said. The IEC chief said now that the registration exercise was complete, IEC would soon compile a report and take it to the relevant authorities who would inform themselves on whether to call for a supplementary registration or not, an exercise he said was still favaoured by time.
“As the IEC whatever decisions we make we rely on the constitution, and if time did not allow for supplementary registration then we would not allow it,” he said.
He said some of the reasons people advanced for failure to register were that they were still awaiting confirmation of candidates by political parties as they could not register without knowledge of their potential representatives.
“Others informed us that normally, candidates picked them up from their homes to go and register, something they said did not happen this time, hence their failure to register,” said Mr Siamisang.
He also said that Batswana were naturally slow and preferred doing things at the last minute, which he said explained the influx of people at the registration centres during the eleventh hour on Saturday.
Mr Siamisang however, said the case between the IEC and Madibela Tlhopho did not contribute to low registration, indicating that they in fact took advantage of that period to intensify public education of the importance of registration through various media outlets.
He said after the compilation of the report, IEC would then compile a voters’ roll as soon as it was practicable, where it would be sent out for inspection by the community.
Mr Siamisang also appreciated registration clerks across the country for their stellar job, although he said that human errors could not be entirely eliminated.
He also appreciated political party leaders for their constant encouragement to the public to register.
Concerning the stolen registration books in the Marobela council ward, Mr Siamisang indicated that only 42 registrants were affected, of whom 32 had already been identified and issued with new cards.
“We have since cancelled the stolen books from our system, so there is no how someone can submit them to us,” he said.
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