IEC completes poll preparations

Botswana's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has completed preparations for the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 30 October. Addressing a news conference in Gaborone last week, IEC secretary Gabriel Seeletso said the electoral supervisory body was now consolidating the constituency voters' rolls into a single, national roll. Responding to opposition doubts over the timely return of ballot boxes from the largely inaccessible remote outposts, like the Okavango Delta area in the north and desert outposts to the west, Seeletso said the government's Central Transport Organisation had been mobilised to provide enough vehicles. "Local authorities and individual election officers have also been approached to release vehicles for use during the election period. Special arrangements for the use of air transport are being finalised for problematic areas like the Okavango Delta area," he said. The IEC chief said international observers would be allowed to monitor the polls for the first time since independence in 1966. However, the announcement of a freeze in alterations to the voters' roll has not gone down well with opposition parties, who contend that many people with queries regarding their registration could be disenfranchised. "The issuance of the writ of elections [on 17 September] effectively halted all alterations to the voters' roll, and that includes transfers. Those whose names appear in the wrong constituencies will not be allowed to vote, but they can lodge complaints with the courts after the polls if they think their participation could have altered the outcome," Seeletso said. The initial voters' roll was fraught with mistakes, with some people's names appearing in the wrong constituencies, others with wrong addresses and incomplete personal details. This led to a flurry of court actions, while others approached the IEC individually to seek corrections. Seeletso admitted there were many mistakes in the voters' list but said the IEC would not tamper with the roll, adding, "those who are out, are out." The voter registration exercise, which ran for more than six months, was marred by a low turnout despite an extensive public education campaign. The IEC estimates there are about 500,000 eligible voters in the country, but less than 300,000 had registered by the close of the initial exercise in April. According to a recent opinion poll carried out by the political research department of the University of Botswana, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was headed for a landslide victory. The BDP has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign since independence in 1966.