22 Apr 2019

The party liaison committee (PLC), under the auspices of the Independent Electoral Commissions (IEC), averts election grievances and complaints.

 A member of the Batlokwa royal, Kgosi Steven Korwe pointed this on April 16 during the PLC meeting in Ramotswa.

 He said it was crucial for stakeholders, including tribal representatives, council secretariats, land boards, political parties and other relevant stakeholders to participate and attend the meetings.  Kgosi Korwe made the comments after some PLC members raised concern over absenteeism by some menbers.

Kgosi Korwe said it was disappointing  that even on the eve of the general election there were members who still failed to attend meetings. This, he said, was despite the fact that the committee offered a consultative forum for all stakeholders as well as suggesting ideas to avoid election complaints.

 Principal elections officer in South East District, Ms Pelonomi Selemogwe-Kwaramba said the procedure was that all political parties should nominate their representative to the committee in writing.

 She highlighted that there had been instances where political parties wanted to nominate members without writing, but that her office advised them about the procedure.  On other election issues, Ms Selemogwe-Kwaramba said the just ended constituency based supplementary registration recorded low numbers in both Ramotswa and Tlokweng.

 She said in Ramotswa only 790 people registered whereas 1 068 registered in Tlokweng, adding that during the last general registration, 18 775 people registered in Ramotswa and 11 895 registered in Tlokweng.

She appealed to members of the committee to sensitise the public about the need to inspect the voters roll.

 She stated that the roll inspection would be available until May 20 and highlighted that Tlokweng recorded 150 cases of rejected voters while only 50 were recorded in Ramotswa.

 She said her office would be following the affected to correct the abnormalities before they could be admitted to vote.

Furthermore, Ms Selemogwe-Kwaramba said the last supplementary registration was ongoing and encouraged those who had not registered to register. She highlighted that the commission had set a target of registering 80 per cent of the people eligible to vote, but that only 59 per cent registered during the general voter registration and one per cent during the constituency based supplementary registration. ENDS