18 Jun 2019

Acting Independent Election Commission (IEC) secretary, Ms Doreen Serumula, says chiefs have a significant role to play in national elections.

Presenting about the state of preparedness for this year’s general elections to Ntlo ya Dikgosi, Ms Serumula said the involvement of traditional leaders in elections will assist in voter sensitisation. 

She said chiefs coud motivate communities to register as well as vote during the elections.

She also noted that chiefs were of great assistance in processes of inspection of rolls, nomination and polling.

On other issues, Ms Serumula noted that they have had an increase in youth participation; with percentages of 21, 29 and 40 in the 2004, 2009 and 2014 general elections respectively.

She also said IEC had registered a reduction in the number of elections petitions, with seven in 2009 and only one in 2014. However, she noted that her office had experienced challenges in the past elections such as voter apathy, vastness of the country, overwhelming number of independent candidates, inadequate resources to carry out the elections efficiently, and language barriers in some villages as well as abuse of social media; reporting fake news.

Ms Serumula also stated that voter registration for 2014 was 825 582 or 77 percent of the 80 percent target that the organisation had set.

In 2019, the voter registration is at 930 933 or 73 percent of the 80 percent target the IEC had set.  Kgosi Galeakanye Modise of Tswapong region advised the IEC to engage chiefs more and equip them with necessary information regarding elections such that they could convicingly share with their communities. ENDS