16 Oct 2018

 Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) principal elections officer in the South East District, Ms Pelonomi Selemogwe-Kwaramba has cautioned political activists against withholding election registration cards of their supporters.

 She said such is an offence punishable by law and for which an offender can get a sentence of imprisonment, a fine or both.

Ms Selemogwe-Kwaramba who was addressing Party Liaison Committee members in Ramotswa recently said withholding someone’s election registration could result in such person failing to vote. 

 She said political party activists were free to mobilise and sensitise members of the community to register, but they have nothing to do with their voter registration cards. 

On other voter registration issues, she said IEC in the South East District had overcome some election registration teething problems. 

Among those experienced during the commencement of the registration exercise were shortage of furniture, toilets for registration staff and access to potable water. 

She stated that the office had managed to secure toilets and to liaise with community members to assist in accommodating registration officers. 

She stated that the office had resolved to compensate such families for opening their doors to members of their election registration officers. 

Furthermore, Ms Selemogwe-Kwaramba said   isolated polling station had engaged private hire toilets. 

She stated that the issue of hiring toilets for polling stations was delayed due to high bills that the commission had to pay and the issues had been sorted. 

With regard to furniture, Ms Selemogwe-Kwaramba said normally IEC use furniture from the schools, but this time around, the problem was shortage of furniture at schools. 

However, she stated that Tswelelopele Brigade came to their rescue as they managed to avail furniture for registration. 

Furthermore, she stated that all of their registration officers were out of school youths who are not benefiting from any government initiative. 

She stated that the district had 1 108 registration officers and six supervisors, adding that they were all trained. 

Also, she told the committee members that the election registration members had the power to object to a registration if they were of the view that the registering person contravened the Act. 

The national election registration started on September 3 and ends November 11 and the IEC has set a target of registering 1.5 million voters. ENDS