Batswana urged to inspect voters roll thoroughly
Umb r e l l a f o r Demo c r a t i c Change ( UDC)’ s
Madibela Tlhopho has challenged Batswana to take keen interest in inspecting the voters roll.
I n d e p e n d e n t Electoral Commission ( IEC) has announced that it will be availing a roll resulting from the General voters’ registration exercise for inspection by memb e r s of the public. The roll was initially expected to have been released by end of March 2024 but IEC failed to beat this deadline. The commission however, committed to speed up the process to ensure it happens this month.
Madibela Tlhopho s p o k e s p e r s o n , Mi chael Keakopa stated this week that it is important to inspect the voters roll thoroughly because the IEC might manipulate the r e g i s t r a t i on information to ensure that some people do not end up voting like it happened in some instances during the 2019 general election.
“You must ensure or check that your surname, first name, second name, ID nu m b e r, v o t e r registration number, postal or physical address, sex/ gender and status are all captured correctly; your regi strat ion appears in the right const i tuency and polling district ( ward). Do the same for your f amily membe r s , associates, friends and comrades,” he said.
Ac c o r d i n g t o Keakopa, it is also important especially for party deployees to look out for voters who have registered multiple times, in physical addresses, polling districts and constituencies they do not stay or reside in, in none- existent physical addresses, in open spaces, and in undeveloped plots among others.
He added, “inform us of registrations that occurred outside registration times, outside polling stations and registration offices without voters having to physically present themselves before a registration officer and this includes any other suspicious registrations.”
Keakopa explained that the general voter registration roll has an inspection period of 42 days and that of supplementary roll has 21 days. After all rolls have been inspected and all objections have been processed, all rolls “clean” will be amalgamated into one. He indicated that then as such that will become a certified roll which will be used in the general election.
“It wi ll also be inspected to make sure that there are no lastminute manipulations. Kindly join us in this critical journey to protect and safeguard our votes and country.”
IEC and UDC have been for some time at loggerheads over the running of the country’s elections. This later resulted in a legal battle where IEC won at Court of Appeal. The UDC then held nationwide Ma d i b e l a t l h o p o training sessions where they emphasised that all they wanted was for things to be done in an orderly manner.
Keakopa stated that the last election cycle was tainted with i r regular ities. He cited instances where BDP members would allegedly go home with the voters’ roll and amend it from there.
He said that the best way to stop cheating is through constant monitoring of the system. Keakopa said that when they try to get their issues through, they are told that these are issues of national security threat. He added that elections are matters that should not be treated as classified but they should be open to everyone.