{"id":41450,"date":"2024-01-05T18:35:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T18:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?p=41450"},"modified":"2024-01-05T15:42:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T15:42:00","slug":"madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance","title":{"rendered":"Madibelatlhopho to monitor registration \u2018from a distance\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>As the voter registration for the 2024 General Election gets underway, the leader of Madibelatlhopho says they will deploy their members at different polling stations to observe the exercise from a distance.<\/b><\/p>\n

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 (January 5) until February 3.<\/p>\n

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 that contrary to the IEC\u2019s statement issued earlier today, they have no intention of interfering with the voter registration process.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s ruling. The IEC called on all \u201cstakeholders and voters\u201d to \u201crespect the laws governing\u201d the electoral process.<\/p>\n

Keakopa says they will now do their observations from outside the polling stations.<\/p>\n

“Nothing has changed. We will be monitoring the registration since there is no law which is being violated. \u201cThe Electoral Act says we should be outside a 200 meter radius of polling stations and that\u2019s on Election Day. \u201cIt is silent with regards to the registration days,” Keakopa said.<\/p>\n

The head of the observer group said Madibelatlhopho had no intention of defying the CoA ruling.<\/p>\n

“No, not at all. That is part of the misinformation propagated by IEC and the (ruling) Botswana Democratic Party. \u201cOur application to the court was to interdict the IEC and anyone else who could prevent us from monitoring registration within polling stations. \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, Keakopa rubbished these accusations and labelled the contents of the IEC\u2019s as pure misinformation intended to portray the group in a bad light.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, he also alleged that the IEC is always at variance with the law, which he said had led to the existence of Madibelatlhopho.<\/p>\n

“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. \u201cThe constitution says her appointment should have lasted until retirement age,” he explained.<\/p>\n

He said as political parties, they have been doing voter registration as part of their membership recruitment.<\/p>\n

“This happens before, during and after IEC registration,\u201d Keakopa said. \u201cAlready 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. \u201cThis 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. \u201cThis is a voter driven exercise to secure their own registration and by extension their vote. \u201cAbsent this, the IEC will manipulate their information to ensure that they are unable to vote come October like it happened in October 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. As the voter registration for the 2024 General Election gets underway, 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":41449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-41450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nMadibelatlhopho to monitor registration \u2018from a distance\u2019 - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the voter registration for the 2024 General Election gets underway, the leader of Madibelatlhopho says they will d ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Madibelatlhopho to monitor registration \u2018from a distance\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the voter registration for the 2024 General Election gets underway, the leader of Madibelatlhopho says they will d ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-05T18:35:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704456390.56662.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"532\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Madibelatlhopho to monitor registration \u2018from a distance\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-05T18:35:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance\"},\"wordCount\":626,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704456390.56662.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/madibelatlhopho-to-monitor-registration-from-a-distance\",\"name\":\"Madibelatlhopho to monitor registration \u2018from a distance\u2019 - 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