26 Mar 2017

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is expecting the first batch of Electronic Voting machines (EVM) around October.
The arrival of the batch will pave way for public educations on the use of EVM which will be used in the 2019 general elections, the EVM coordinator and former secretary Mr Gabriel Seeletso has said.

During a consultative meeting in Ramotswa Kgotla on Thursday, Mr Seeletso also talked about the amendment of the Electoral Act, which he said led to the introduction of voting machines among other things.
He said the use of voting machines would do away with issues of rejected votes as well as shortening the time taken to announce results.
“Introduction of the machines are recommendations from various election evaluation workshops around the country.

After every election, there are evaluations and recommendations are forwarded to the relevant authorities for action,” Mr Seeletso said
Other items which were forwarded for actions include the call for direct election of the president, extension of election period days and counting of ballots at polling stations.

However, he said as IEC, they could only recommend adding that even the suggestions raised from the consultative meetings would make part of the report to be sent to authorities.
Mr Seeletso said the EVM wouldl not be networked while each machine will be able accommodate about 2 000 voters.

The EVM coordinator noted out of the 48 constituencies, people were generally welcoming the EVM changes but noted that there were those against the idea.
He said there were those who were decreeing lack of consultation when the law was amended, but noted that IEC had no authority to change the law but act on a law which has been passed by Parliament.

On other changes, people wishing to contest for council seat will have to pay P1 000 from P100 and those wishing for parliamentary seat will pay P5 000, something which the residents said will deter some to forward their names.
One resident said there were many young people who were unemployed and they were able to represent their communities but will be disadvantaged due to high fees.
Nonetheless, Mr Seeletso regretted that there were no special charges for young people and women.
Another change in the amended Act includes the facing away of supplementary registration, something which residents opined that it needed to be re-looked at.
The residents said elections were core to the country’s democracy hence election registration should be given adequate time. BOPA