15 Mar 2017

The Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale says government made consultations before including electronic voting in the Electoral Act.

Mr Molale was responding to complaints from two opposition Members of Parliament that the Electoral Act was amended last year without consultation to include electronic voting.
Parliamentarians were debating the Independence Electoral Commission (IEC) budget proposals amounting to P184.95 million for the financial year 2017/18.

MP for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse said consultations were not carried out, threatening that opposition parties could boycott the general elections in 2019, if government impose the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) without verifiable audit paper trail.

Mr Keorapetse charged that EVMs could easily be tempered with and were therefore not safe. The legislator said many countries around the world with more voters than Botswana were not comfortable with EVMs, and wondered why Botswana with a small population of voters wanted to introduce the machines urgently.

“We are against the use of EVMs as prescribed by the amended Electoral Act where there would not be verifiable audit paper trail. There should be provision for storage of information in the machines for use in case of disputed results,” Mr Keorapetse said.

For his part, Goodhope-Mabule MP, Kgosi Lotlaamoreng II also said the electorate was not consulted before amendments to introduce electronic voting machines were effected.

He pointed that the right thing would have been to get views of the people before deciding on changing the Electoral Act. He wondered how verification would be done to ensure that the machines were not used to cheat.

However, Minister Molale dismissed their queries, pointing that legislators were consulted before the Bill was tabled in Parliament to amend the Electoral Act and introduce the use of EVMs.

The minister further explained that the reforms prescribed verification of electronic votes.

“These reforms were done in good faith in order to improve the efficiency of our voting process. I therefore urge Members of Parliament not to be skeptical about the machine,” Mr Molale said.

Boteti West MP, Mr Slumber Tsogwane welcomed the reforms, arguing that legislators were consulted at their general assembly. He further said some district councils around the country were consulted about the reforms.

Takatokwane MP, Mr Ngaka Ngaka also expressed support for the use of EVMs and dismissed claims that the machines would be tempered with easily. ENDS