ECN trains officials ahead of poll rerun
KEETMANSHOOP - The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) in the //Kharas region on Saturday commenced a five-day training session for polling officials who will conduct the re-run elections at Aroab and Koës set to take place on Friday.
The training for the 24 polling officials will run until tomorrow.
In an interview with Nampa here on Saturday, ECN coordinator for //Kharas Augustinus Ucham said the election materials are scheduled to arrive Sunday and Wednesday, with polling officials to be deployed to their respective polling stations by Thursday.
Ucham urged all the eligible voters at the two villages to come out in numbers on Friday and exercise their democratic rights.
“The voters must accept the technicality that occurred in last year’s elections and come out in numbers and vote. Voters should not worry about what occurred before; we have put structures in place so that this time around the right ballot papers are issued to the right localities,” he said.
The Windhoek High Court in December last year ordered a re-run of elections should take place in the Koës, Aroab and Stampriet local authorities and Mariental Rural Constituency after the ECN brought an application before that court to have the ballots cast and the elections held on 25 November declared null and void after they determined that some polling stations closed early and that wrong ballot papers were issued at others.
The parties contesting in the Koës local authority elections include Swapo, Landless People’s Movement (LPM), Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) and Popular Democratic Movement (PDM).
Koës has registered 1 200 eligible voters. Aroab has 1 167 eligible voters and LPM, PDM, IPC, Swapo and Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters are contesting for the Aroab local authority elections.