24 Jul 2016

The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale  on Thursday presented the Electoral (Amendment) Bill of 2016.

Presenting the bill as a matter of urgency in terms of Standing Order 72.3, Mr Molale said the bill seeks to introduce new technology in the form of electronic voting machines. 

Mr Molale, therefore, said sufficient time was required to conduct extensive voter education with a view to enhancing voter participation in the next general elections.

He further said there was need to meet the government budgetary timelines to secure funds for the procurement of electronic voting machines for presentation at the next budget session of Parliament.

He added that the introduction of electronic voting machines would require time to allow for their procurement and manufacturing, and that any delayed tabling of the bill could affect the timely delivery of the machines, including prototypes for use in voter education when the bill was signed into law.

Mr Molale further said the Independent Electoral Commission has scheduled demonstrations by suppliers of non network based electronic voting machines to Members of Parliament on July 26 and other key stakeholders from July 27 until August 3, 2016. 

Some Members of Parliament from the opposition said the bill was hurried and argued that there was need to consult constituents especially with regards to education.

However, some MPs from the ruling party argued that electronic voting was a welcome development since they have long spoken about it together with their counterparts from the opposition.

The move to proceed with the bill as a matter of urgency ended with a vote. Twenty-one MPs voting for it to proceed while 12 were against the move.

The object of the bill is to amend the Electoral Act in order to improve efficiency in the electoral process.

The bill addresses issues such as electronic voting, registration of voters, preparation of rolls, deleting provisions for supplementary rolls and assistance of voters.

“Electronic registration is provided for under Clause 5. Clause 7 provides for other means of advertisement of elections outside Botswana. Principal registration appearing at Sections 17 to 24 of the act has been replaced with “principal election officer” at Clauses 11 to 16.  Clause 18 amends the act by providing that a proposer, seconder or supporter shall sign a nomination form in Form O for one candidate only,” the bill says.

Clauses 20 to 32 provide for voting machines and methods of voting while the penalties have been increased at Clauses 36 to 50.

Form O in the schedule has been amended to reflect the gender of a proposer, seconder and supporter as well as the gender, age and contact details of the candidate. 

Clause 51 of the bill provides for the memory capacity of a control unit of a voting machine and the procedure to be followed in dealing with a faulty control unit.

In Clause 52 of the bill, the schedule has been amended by inserting new forms to cater for electronic voting, and Form U has been amended to remove the word envelope wherever it appears in the form. Ends