Confusion over where to vote

Some voters at Mix settlement in the Khomas region found themselves in a predicament yesterday after they could not vote in the regional council election, despite casting their ballot for the local authority poll.

As per the Electoral Act, a voter can only vote for a regional councillor within the constituency they are registered. However, for the local authority election, voting can only take place within town boundaries.

The aggrieved voters could thus not continue to a second polling station as they were already marked with ink after voting in the local authority election at Mix, which is within the City of Windhoek’s boundaries.

An Electoral Commission of Namibia presiding officer Judge Musupi confirmed the issue to New Era yesterday. “We only encountered that challenge of a few people that were already counted as successful voters but they were proceeding to other polling stations for another election. For example, the man that left now was on his way to John Pandeni constituency for the regional council election but had voted for the local authority here and is marked with ink. However, I have tried to give my details so that I can speak to the presiding officers at those polling stations to explain the situation,” he said.

According to Musupi, the congestion at some polling stations was forcing people to vote outside their constituencies even though they are not eligible to do so.

He further explained that the situation was caused by the congestion at the polling stations hence people were forced to go to polling stations with minimal numbers of people to cast their vote.