04 Aug 2024

Polling districts or council wards have since been increased to 609 countrywide following the delimitation exercise conducted in 2022, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Setlhabelo Modukanele has said.

Mr Modukanele said this in response to a question in Parliament recently.

He said before the increase there were 490 polling districts or council wards across Botswana which were established in 2013.

“Following the delimitation exercise of 2022, the demarcation was conducted and consequently 119 polling districts were established bringing the total to 609 as per the government notice No. 367 of 2023,” he said.

He said population had also grown from 2 024 904 in 2011 to 2 359 609 in 2022 and since the last demarcation exercise of 2013, the number of administrative districts increased from 13 to 28 due to decentralisation process, while the number of constituencies also increased from 57 to 61 after delimitation exercise.

He added that all districts registered an increase in number of polling districts except Selebi Phikwe.

“This is because it experienced a population decline in 2022 compared to 2011 census figures which decline is attributed to the closure of the BCL mine.

There are significant factors considered in the demarcation process.

Such other factors include natural community of interest, means of communication, geographical features, population density of administrative districts and boundaries of tribal territories and administrative districts,” he explained.

He further said during 2023 demarcation exercise, the realignment to administrative boundaries and associated population dynamics affected the establishment of polling districts.

The demarcation exercise, he said, was conducted by demarcation committee established for each constituency and the committee conducted consultative meetings with the constituents to solicit submissions on how best to divide the constituency into determined number of polling districts.

“It is worth noting that the population quota is the number obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants in each administrative district by number of polling districts in the district.

The number of polling district inhabitants should be nearly close to the quota as practically possible and this varies across administrative districts,” he said.

Maun West MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the minister to state the current number of wards in each administrative district as well as the number of wards inclusive of the new ward demarcations following the constituency delimitation exercise.

Mr Saleshando also wanted to know if the increases were aligned to population growth in all the districts.

The minister was further asked to state the factors that were considered for each district and the number of wards demarcated not proportional to population growth where the increases were not based on population increase. ENDS