12 Feb 2020

Politicians across the political divide have admitted to being the main culprits in causing friction during the election period, right from registration to election day.

Speaking during a Party Liaison Committee meeting organised to review the past elections in the Jwaneng/Mabutsane constituency on Tuesday, representatives of different parties admitted that politicians, especially candidates, deliberately traffic voters, most of the time promising them rewards.

Umbrella for Democratic Change representative, Mr Keabetswe Kole indicated that indeed the issue of voter trafficking was one of the headaches of the electoral process. 

He said because of life’s hardships, some voters often found it hard to turn down such an offer, to the extent that some would even register in the supplementary registration after having registered during the first registration.

He also said that in pursuit of electoral victory, political parties had also gone to the extent of flouting basic rules such as displaying party colours and material at polling stations, contrary to the Electoral Act.

On other issues, he expressed concern about the public’s lack of interest in registering during the first registration, only to invade registration places during the supplementary registration. 

Mr Kole said apart from the two concerns, the elections in the Jwaneng/Mabutsane constituency went smoothly.

Botswana Democratic Party representative, Mr Balosang Rakaisa raised a concern over transfer of voters within Jwaneng township, saying that in the past, it was never done because of the town’s size.

“This was so because even if one moves from one unit to the other, they could still easily walk to their old unit of residence to vote, but we were surprised in the last elections to see quiet a lot of voter transfers. So my recommendation is that transfers should not be allowed within Jwaneng,” he said.

Other speakers urged the IEC office to intensify training for both voters and election officers, saying that to still have a high number of spoilt votes, even after so many years of voting, might indicate inadequacy in voter knowledge.

For her part, the Jwaneng/Mabutsane principal elections officer, Ms Masego Malebang concurred that voter trafficking was one of the main issues of concern for her office. 

She said the issue was so rife that in the past, candidates had even gone to the extent of trying to bribe IEC officials to help them do illegal transfers.

She therefore encouraged parties to report any such issues to her office, since they were the ones that knew the constituents better.

Ms Malebang said the IEC, only detected voter trafficking during voter transfers through interviews.

“Most of the trafficked voters fail even the basic questions, such as the exact location of the polling station they want to transfer to,” she said.

She said that the objective of the meeting was to review the last general elections for the Jwaneng/Mabutsane constituency and make any necessary recommendations to the IEC secretary.

She also appraised committee members on the amended clauses in the Electoral Act such as Section 81, which increases electoral expenses by candidates from P50 000 to P2 million, as well as the requirement to submit evidence of such expenses to the IEC after elections. ENDS