31 nabbed for voter fraud

A NUMBER of people were arrested in northern Namibia yesterday after they allegedly tried to register twice for the November presidential and general elections.

A group of 29 attempted to register twice at the Onguti Senior Secondary School in the Okankolo constituency, while another one tried the same trick at two primary schools – Elombe and Okayekenongo – in the Onayena constituency, the Electoral Commission of Namibia said yesterday.Two other people, Angolan nationals, were arrested at Oukongo constituency in the Epupa area for trying to register and will be charged with fraud.Director of Elections Moses Ndjarakana said vigilant registration officials intercepted the individuals who pretended to be Namibians.’The ECN has reported all these cases to NamPol for further investigation and stern action within the confines of the law,’ Ndjarakana said.He said they had also received information from a local weekly newspaper that a file containing registration forms was shown to a reporter following a tip-off from a member of the public and expressed the hope that the information would be forwarded to the Police for investigation.’The Electoral Commission of Namibia wishes to assure the public that there are a series of checks and balances in our processes. These checks and balances make it almost impossible for someone to appear more than once on the voters’ roll,’ Ndjarakana said.The supplementary voter registration ended last night, with the ECN giving no indication that it would add any more dates for voter registration.The elections body said on Tuesday that more than 141 000 people had registered to bring the total number of registered voters to 1,14 million out of a population of around two million.