13 Aug 2019

 Francistown Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) office continues to be inundated with applications for transfers from the electorate.

Francistown based IEC principal elections officer told BOPA in an interview Monday that it had come to the attention of his office that often times majority of the people who sought to transfer their registrations were unaware of the fact that they must satisfy registration officers with convincing reasons and supporting documents for them to be granted their wish.

Mr Nyanga Nyanga said some electorate wanted to transfer to places that they were not resident; something he stated had resulted in his office issuing one notice of rejection and turning away several others after explaining to them (electorate) the consequences of voter trafficking.

Doing so, he warned, was in contravention of Section 144 of the Electoral Act, which penalised any person who knowingly registered at a polling station in respect of which he or she was not entitled to be registered or gave false information to a registration officer.

Such persons, according to the law, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

Mr Nyanga thus urged electorate to desist from using the transfer provision for purposes of voter trafficking.

“We also want to emphasise the fact that transfer of registration lies with the concerned voter and not politicians or prospective candidates,” he said. ENDS