17 Jun 2019

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has signaled concerns over the number of independent candidates approaching its offices to register for the general elections.

 Already 209 people have forwarded their names for council seats, while 21 had already registered as parliamentary  candidates. 

This is against the 254 who registered for council seats and 24 for parliament during in the 2014 general elections.

The IEC secretary Ms Keireng Zuze, divulged this information before the South East District Council session recently.

Although the figures were not yet above those registered for the 2014 general elections, the IEC chief was worried that it was still early and the figures were likely to increase.

 Ms Zuze said the number of candidates approaching IEC offices daily was a clear sign that the figures would ascend.

Despite the anticipated high increase in numbers of independent candidates, she regretted that the number of people who registered for the elections was lower than the anticipated target of 80 per cent of the voting population.

She said IEC managed to register 73 per cent or 930 933 out of the 1.3 million people targeted.

Another abnormality in the preparations for this year’s general elections, she said, was the number of objections raised, which could reduce the number of those who had registered.

According to Ms Zuze, the high number of objections could be an indication that Batswana were enlightened about the Electoral Act and they were ready to exercise their rights.

She stated that the IEC would act on the outcome of the objections as directed by the courts.

Ms Zuze told the council that there was nothing the commission could do about objections before the court, even if the affected sought to transfer to rightful polling stations.

She also stated that over the years, IEC had been seeing increase participation of youth in the elections, something which she said could be due to the IEC’s outreach programmes such as youth ambassadors and democracy clubs in schools.

 However, she regretted that although women constituted the bulk of the voters, only a few stood for political office during elections.

During comments, councillors decried poor communication between themselves and IEC, especially with regard to their ward boundaries.   

Others complained that the commission moved some polling stations without consultation, which resulted in people registering at wrong polling stations and some being accused of voter trafficking. ends