28 Apr 2019

Principal Elections Officer at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Francistown, Mr Nyanga Nyanga has decried the low numbers of people who are registering despite attempts aimed at mobilising them.

He said during the same period in 2009, a total of 32 913 people had registered and 35 080 people had registered in the 2014 exercise. 

Speaking during a party liaison committee meeting recently, he said only 29 863 people had registered during the ongoing 2019 registration. 

He however, noted that the second supplementary registration exercise, which ran from April 15 and ended yesterday, had been going smoothly in Francistown.

Mr Nyanga said the voters’ roll had been availed for inspection by the public, noting that the 42 days inspection period would end on May 20. 

He encouraged those who registered to vote to inspect the roll to check if their names and addresses were captured correctly. 

The inspection, he added, also allowed the IEC to check if those who were registered came from within their respective areas.

Mr Nyanga also mentioned that so far they had not had any complaints from the public. 

Mr Nyanga said that their goal was to register all those who were eligible and mentioned that they came up with a tagline, ‘#besmartregistertovote’ to attract the youth.

“We started off very well except for the low turnout,” he said, adding that voter registration numbers dropped further during the Easter holidays.

He said political parties and their leadership were key stakeholders, whose participation was critical to the process.

He further said that both the National Assembly and council candidates had knowledge of their communities and were better placed to encourage people to register. 

Among the challenges, Mr Nyanga said they were cases where people appeared at places where they were not resident, while some prospective candidates lured registration officers to register people outside designated places and times. 

Mr Nyanga said they had intensified their monitoring and supervision and they continued to encourage their registration supervisors to abide by the law at all times. 

“We call upon all key stakeholders and the Francistown community to report any incidents of lawlessness so that appropriate action is taken,” he added.

He urged stakeholders to work with the IEC in ensuring that they had a credible voter registration process.  

For his part, Mr Golwelwang Mogomela of the Botswana Democratic Party said that although they had played their part in encouraging people to register, the number of people who had registered demonstrated that Batswana were speaking silently by not heeding the call. 

On the other hand, Ms Theresa Mmolawa of the Alliance for Progressives said that they had employed all strategies, including house to house campaigns, to encourage people to register. 

She however, said she believed that Batswana still required further voter education. ENDS