Councillor fights back as IEC rejects wife for registration clerk job

The quickest way for one to lose a job at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is if they are found to be politically conflicted. This is what has made some lose jobs even before they started work as Botswana readies for elections next year.

Going into the 2024 elections, the IEC has been under attack with mostly opposition parties accusing them of corruption and favouring the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

These accusations have put the IEC in a very tight spot. All eyes are on them and they cannot afford to commit any mistakes lest they vindicate their accusers.

Voter registration for elections that will be held in October 2024 begins this Wednesday and IEC has tried to screen all registration clerks to remove any grain of doubt.

IEC Secretary, Jefferson Siamisang says they have put all measures in place to ensure that no politically-aligned people get the IEC job of registering voters.

“In one instance, we found that the wife of a

Councillor had applied for the job of a registration clerk, she did well in the interviews only for us to realise during screening that she was conflicted. We called her and explained that the public will think she is there to sabotage voters. She understood where we were coming from and she let it go. But the husband was not very happy, the Councillor had a hard time accepting the fact that his wife was not getting the job,” Siamisang explained. He added that in another incident, a politician that was a candidate in the 2014 and 2019 elections applied for the registration clerk job and after careful screening, they disqualified him. This is how they are trying to keep the IEC away from controversies. As voters step into registration stations today, they should feel free to report to them if they have evidence that any registration officer is or are politically-aligned.

“We will take each case as it comes, if a complaint is brought forward, we will investigate first and make a decision thereafter.

“If we do find out that one is politically conflicted, we will have no choice but to release them,” he said.