29 Oct 2024

With only a day to go before the general elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is confident of smooth elections.

In an interview, IEC spokesperson Mr Osupile Maroba said so far they have not had any notable challenges.

“Everything is going accordingly. Material such as ballot booths, tents and the ballots papers have already been transported to polling stations and we have not faced any challenges concerning moving them,” he said.

Regarding polling officers, Mr Maroba said they were all ready, and that the IEC had not received any report of any of them withdrawing their services.

He said arrangements were also in place to ensure that polling officers who could not vote in the advance voting on October 19 would be assisted.

“We have options in place as we promised them, and one option is shifting the officers such that those who did not manage to vote will be posted to constituencies where they have registered so that they can vote with the general public.

If that fails the other option will be to release them so that they can go and exercise their constitutional right. This will then mean that we will have to replace them with other gazetted officers as the law dictates,” he said.

Even though he admitted the possibility of challenges if any of the polling officers were to withdraw on the last minute, he said IEC was ready for the eventuality, and that in replacing such officers the law would be followed.

On the numbers that voted in the advance voting, including in the diaspora, Mr Maroba said IEC  could not at this stage disclose numbers of who voted because that would be unprocedural.

“We can only talk about that summary after elections, we may have the numbers now but we cannot make an analysis on them according to the Constitution.

There is a time of when to and not to disclose information because such information has the potential to influence those still to vote,” he said.

He said they wanted Batswana to vote freely without any influence.

On the indelible ink to be used during this year’s general elections, Mr Maroba said the IEC had  confidence in the ink as assured by the manufacturer.

“When a manufacturer assures us that the ink is indelible, we take it that it means just that. An indelible ink is supposed to take more than just a day, which is sufficient enough to serve the purpose for the voting period,” he said.

On the free and fairness of the elections, Mr Maroba said that as long as IEC followed laid down law, which he promised they would, the elections would go accordingly.

Mr Maroba also appealed to Batswana who lost their registration cards to approach nearest IEC office to make duplicates.

He said October 29 was the last day to make such duplicates and IEC would not issue any duplicates on polling day. ENDS