26 Oct 2016

The principal elections officer for Letlhakeng Sub- district, Mr Joseph Diswai says it is time innovative methods were employed to reach the electorates on issues concerning elections as conventional methods such as kgotla meetings are no longer effective.

Addressing the Party Liaison Committee (PLC) members in Letlhakeng on Tuesday, Mr Diswai said that they have noted that communities no longer attend kgotla meetings in large numbers hence voter education at the kgotla forum does not reach a desirable number of the electorates.

Mr Diswai called on the committee members to assist in coming up with ways of reaching a large spectrum of people, as well as briefing them after meetings. Mr Diswai said reaching a large number of electorates was vital as his office would soon go around villages to educate the electorates on the Electoral Act new amendments.

The amendments include among others, the adoption of usage of electronic voting machines, ceasing of supplementary registration as well as increment in candidates registration fees.

He said since the amendments had recently been signed into law, it meant that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has to educate the electorates on the new amendments.

He said at the moment they were still awaiting the procurement of proto-types by the head office before they could start physical demonstrations.

“There is no doubt that 2019 is just around the corner, so public education on the amendments and the usage of the voting machine should be intensified,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Diswai said that in their last activities when the office was updating electorates on the demarcation of polling district boundaries, people raised a concern on the new boundaries, but said that as the office they were powerless to make changes.

For his part, a member of the committee and the Umbrella for Democratic Change representative, Mr Gordon Mokgwathi said that the reason why there were many complaints about boundaries was that politicians had been removed from the committee that helped in demarcations even though they were the best placed to advice accordingly.

He said prior to their removal the complaints were non-existent. Mr Mokgwathi also complained about poor consultations prior to the adoption of the electronic voting machines, saying that the decision was hurried into law before people could make their input.

However, Mr Diswai said that the decision to use the machines was based on the recommendations of the Stakeholders Evaluation Committee report. ENDS