14 Mar 2018

Registration for the upcoming 2019 general elections will start from September 3rd to November 7th.

Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) principal elections officer, Mr Molatlhegi Baloi informed members of the Party Liaison Committee (PLC) during a meeting in Palapye on Tuesday that voter registration would  be conducted  once and that there would  be no supplementary registration.

He urged stakeholders to encourage their counterparts to register for elections during the set dates, urging those whose identity cards would  expire  this year to do so in advance.

He said the IEC was aware that most identity cards would expire this year. He urged those affected to renew their identity cards on time.

Mr Baloi also urged members to return the identity cards for deceased people to avoid a situation where names of the deceased appeared in the voters roll.

Mr Baloi further informed the meeting that the commission was also aware of pending court cases in which the opposition challenged the legality of the introduction of the electronic voting machines, and the abolition of supplementary and continuous registration.

He said the commission has not yet bought the EVMs pending the court case, and that the commission would continue with voter registration despite the pending case, adding that should the IEC lose the case the supplementary and continuous registrations would be conducted swiftly after the set date for registration.

A member of Botswana National Front, Mr Onkarabile Fati raised concern over the set date for registration of voters, saying the commission should await the judgment.

He said it was worrisome that the IEC was about to start voter registration when EVM training had not started, adding that Batswana were against the use of EVMs as there was no proper consultation prior to passing the electoral amendments.

He warned that his party would not vote in the 2019 general elections if the will of the people was not respected.

In response, Mr Baloi said the IEC was aware of the matter before the court of law and was equally concerned that EVM trainings had not commenced yet.

He said once the court passes judgement the IEC would do its best to prepare for the 2019 general elections.

He said since the issue was of national interest, the IEC was counting on the court to fast track the case. ENDS