Africa-Press – Namibia. Election officials and some police officers will head to the polls for the 2025 Regional Councils and Local Authorities elections special voting day today across the country.
This will take place at specific polling stations in all 120 constituencies and 59 local authorities.
The eligibility for special voting is restricted to voters employed as election officials deployed outside their constituencies and local authorities. This includes such as returning officers, presiding officers, polling officers and counting officers.
“Police officers who will be deployed outside their constituencies and local authorities on 26 November will also be allowed to cast their votes within their constituencies,” said ECN Chief Electoral Officer, Peter Shaama at a press briefing on Sunday.
Special voting refers to provisions in law allowing a certain category of voters to cast their votes outside the regular polling day.
They are afforded this special day in terms of Section 98(2) of the Electoral Act No. 5 of 2014. Voting commences at 09h00 and closes at 19h00.
Verification of voters
As a requirement, the ECN will deploy a voters register to enable verification of voters at polling stations, using the Integrated Mobile Voter Registration System (IMVRS) devices.
This system allows for Biometric Voter Identification (BVI) as well as manual verification on embedded manual voters’ register. Voters in this category are required to present to the presiding officer a written authorisation issued by the chief electoral and referenda officer and their names must be included in the list of voters entitled to vote during special voting.
According to Section 98 (5), (5) of the Electoral Act, a voter who has signed the written authorisation may not place the ballot paper marked by him or her in a ballot box.
They are required to place the ballot paper in the presence of the returning officer concerned and without being unfolded, in a blank envelope, close the blank envelope and hand the blank envelope to the returning officer.
The returning officer is required to place it in an envelope called the “authorisation ballot paper envelope”, close the authorisation ballot paper envelope and set it aside in a separate packet and place the packet in the designated ballot box.
Counting and announcement of results
In accordance with the procedures governing special voting, no counting of votes will take place immediately after the close of the poll on 24 November 2025 (today).
The votes cast by special voters utilise authorisation ballot papers, which are placed in sealed authorisation ballot paper envelopes and subsequently placed in the designated ballot box.
For safekeeping, the presiding officers shall, in the presence of election agents, seal these ballot boxes.
Contesting political parties, organisations, associations and independent candidates will be allowed to affix their seals.
The final results will be announced together with all other votes cast during the main election on 26 November 2025.
This consolidated counting process takes place at the same polling stations as the main voting.
The Electoral Act mandates, under Section 105(1)(b), that the presiding officer must open all the authorisation ballot paper envelopes contemplated in section 98(5) and remove therefrom the ballot papers concerned.
“The votes recorded on these ballot papers are then counted along with the ordinary ballot papers removed from the ballot boxes.”
“The counted result of all votes, including those cast by special voters, will then be announced in the prescribed manner. This integrated approach reinforces transparency and the integrity of the electoral process,” Shaama concluded.
The total registered voters for the 2025 Regional Councils and Local Authorities elections are 1,499,449 from a total number of 1,670,813 eligible voters across the country. This constitutes a 90% voter registration rate.
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