A re Dibeleng Tlhopho rotlhe!

The combative relationship between the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) bodes ill for next year’s general elections.

Ideally, as an electoral management body, the IEC ought to maintain a cordial and friendly relationship with all political parties, which, in addition to the electorate, are the major stakeholders in the electoral process.

But as things are, I am afraid we are headed to a highly charged, fractious and even dangerously violent election, that is if as I expect, the Francistown High Court will return a favourable verdict with respect to UDC’s urgent application.

The root cause of the UDC’s legal route is IEC’s indifference and somewhat ‘contemptuous’ attitude towards opposition political parties. The IEC comes across as a state organ rather than an independent apolitical electoral arbiter!

I say this because during the recent UDC press conference, Patrick Molotsi made an intriguing observation about a recent meeting of Chairpersons of Political Parties and the IEC.

Molotsi said that the IEC kow-towed and deferred to the Chairperson of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) giving him special treatment at the expense of the opposition Chairpersons! But that is just an observation. My real point of departure is that, as the UDC leader, Advocate Duma Boko has argued in court, the IEC’s postponement of the elections registration is self-created. The UDC has sat on a letter that the UDC wrote to them seeking clarification on a number of electoral issues that they believed required clarity before the electoral cycle could begin with the registration process, which had been scheduled for November 1, 2023. But as we all know now, and are all witness to the indifference with which the IEC treated the matter, the UDC was ultimately forced to go to court to seek permission for their registration clerks to observe the IEC elections registration process.

Now that the High Court has given an interim order in favour of the UDC, the IEC can finally come out in the open to respond to the UDC letter and demands!

Whilst the IEC argue, through their attorney, that the UDC wants to get the court to legislate, a function, which under the principle of separation of powers belongs in the provenance of the legislature – I contend that the UDC is within their legal right to seek recourse from the judiciary to assert their rights!

The IEC, through their Secretary, have made startling revelations lately. In one interview, Jefferson Siamisang admitted that the last registration exercise for general election was plagued by irregularities, some of which he mentioned specifically.

These included the use of inexperienced youths who would take registration booklets to pubs and bars and after a few drinks would register people there; or take the booklets home whereat members of political parties would bring names of voters to register – this, after normal registration times!

Surely, these irregularities would naturally influence the outcome of the election, because these actions had a direct bearing on the Voters’ Roll.

Therefore, like they say, once bitten, twice shy – the UDC has put in place measures – and I must concede, legal measures- to ensure that next year’s general election does not experience a repeat of what transpired in 2019.

It is their steadfast belief that owing to these irregularities, which the IEC Secretary has since admitted, many voters were denied their franchise notwithstanding that they had registered!

One of those laudable measures is to set up ‘Madibela Tlhopho’ –a group of the party’s members that would be inducted in both the country’s Constitution and the Electoral Act, to ensure that these men and women observe with a hawk’s eye, whatever transpires during the election cycle!

Rather than criticise it, this effort ought to be applauded because it forms part of political education, a facet, which political parties across the board have largely ignored. For UDC to introduced this measure, signals a reawakening in its political consciousness. It realises that people perish because of ignorance. Batswana can be taken for a ride by either the political parties themselves or the elections management body if they are not aware of their rights as espoused and enunciated by both the country’s Basic Law and the Electoral Act. As for me, I would happily advise all other political parties to copy this model (Madibela Tlhopho) and introduce it in their structures to ensure that they also enlighten their general membership as well as the general electorate about the process of elections and what the law says.

The same should be done by the civil society organisations including the Media. We all have a role to play to ensure that elections are conducted in a manner that is fair, lawful, transparent and free for all stakeholders – parties and the electorate, as well as the elections management body!

In this way, we can all guard against excesses and baggage that usually attend the process. We can avoid the costly petitions that arise whenever one party alleges rigging as happened in the last election. We cannot say with absolute certainty that there was no rigging in the last election since the legal cases were thrown out on technicalities! The allegations were never really tested, and the UDC’s ‘People’s Court’ could not even get off the ground!

Let us consider some of the issues that the UDC wants the IEC to clarify, which issues the IEC has taken forever to respond to, until the UDC was forced to go to court. Data capture, storage, retrieval and management

The IEC captures data electronically and maintains a data base from which it generates certain records from time to time. The records include voters’ rolls which become dispositive in the conduct of elections at all levels. The integrity and reliability of the systems that generate these records is of vital importance. 1. In relation to the registration of voters, a process which the Commission has scheduled for commencement on 1 November 2023, we are aware that in the past the registration officers are not only issued with registration booklets, but are also allowed to take these to their homes overnight and return to the registration stations the next day. There are concerns in regard to this practice.

1.1 the law directs that every eligible voter desiring to register as such present himself/herself, physically, before a registration officer and provide such information as is required to enable his/her registration as a voter in a given constituency. This is in terms of Section 10(1) (b) as well as Section 10(5) of the Electoral Act.