25 Jan 2024

The nation should remain rest assured that the registration process that started in earnest four weeks ago was going well, says the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Chief Public Relations officer, Mr Osupile Maroba.

He said in an interview with BOPA that despite the little hiccups such as the stealing of six registration books that occurred in Marobela and the use of pencils to append voters’ signatures in some polling stations registration was going well.

He admitted that his office received reports that some voters had been made to append their signatures with a pen instead of an HB pencil as per the commission’s instruction. Such instances he relayed were as widespread as purported by certain news reports and the commission has since embarked on a mission to follow up the affected voters with the view to make corrections. “E dirwa kgang hela mme ga se kgang. People blow things out of proportion,” he said explaining further that the slight mistakes would not impact the validity of the voters’ roll that would be generated using voters’ details.

Moreover, Mr Maroba told BOPA that the voters’ roll that would be generated after registration would also accord the voting public the privilege to validate the correction or non-thereof of their details so that they were not disenfranchised at the polls. “The public will have an opportunity to inspect the roll and make corrections where necessary,” he said adding that the voters’ roll would be made available at strategic points such as the kgotla, District Commissioner’s Office as well as the IEC office in all the 61 constituencies across the country. Public viewing of the same, he said, was free of charge except where an individual would want to be given his/her copy for personal use elsewhere.

In such instances, Mr Maroba stated that a nominal fee would be charged per the volume of the pages one would want to be given. Also, Mr Maroba stated that efforts were made to reach out to the 52 people who were affected by the stealing of six registration books that occurred in Marobela on January 19, 2024 around 1830 in the evening after a vehicle belonging to a registration officer was broken into.

Narrating some of the details of the story, Mr Maroba said the incident happened after the registration officer had knocked off at around 1800 pm and had a stop-over at some shops. On other matters, the IEC spokesperson told BOPA that the Commission’s Secretary had as of last week written letters to all political parties stating reasons behind the poor showing by voters to register for the elections due this year.

“The Commission shared with political parties the fact that some potential voters had stated that they were waiting for the conduction primary elections to take place first before they can register,” he said.

As at week three, 319 632 people have registered for the general election slated for this year. ENDS