30 May 2018

 The Electoral Act Amendment Bill of 2017 which seeks to include paper trail in Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) will be tabled in the next session of Parliament, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) secretary Ms Keireng Zuze has said.

Addressing the Jwaneng/Mabutsane party liaison committee recently, Ms Zuze pointed out that the case on the use of the EVM was still before the courts.

The IEC secretary said the commission was nevertheless proceeding with voter registration scheduled for September 3 to November 11 and stressed that there would be no supplementary registration.

“We are expecting approximately 1.6 million people to register who will be eligible to vote during the 2019 elections. Preparations are ongoing both in Botswana and outside to ensure that we employ temporary registration clerks and supervisors who will assist during registration,” said Ms Zuze.

She called on party liaison committees to help educate the nation about the registration exercise saying they had a vital role to play in disseminating information and convincing electorate to register for elections.

The committee consists of politicians, pastors, trade unions, organisations of people living with disability and other non-governmental organisations.

On other issues, Ms Zuze cautioned that it was against the law to report or reveal election results while counting was ongoing.

Explaining that the law protected the secrecy of the ballot, she said anyone caught taking pictures and sending them to outsiders was liable to a P100 fine or six months imprisonment or both.

A committee member, Mr Tenny Botoka of the BCP requested that committee members be considered for appointment as nominated councillors.

Meanwhile Mr Balosang Rakaisa of the BDP requested that the Jwaneng/Mabutsane committee be paid an allowance as they had worked tirelessly to reduce election queries.

Imploring them to keep up the good work, Ms Zuze assured the committee that IEC would present the allowance issue to the relevant authorities. ENDS