Election preparations start

OVER 74 000 voters were registered during the August and September nation-wide supplementary registration of voters for the upcoming regional and local elections, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) told journalists in Windhoek yesterday.

Victor Tonchi said this figure includes 28 318 new applications, 16 678 registrations due to change of address and 29 800 registrations for duplicates.The supplementary registration was done from 23 August – 6 September 2010. Tonchi said the ECN was at an advanced stage of preparations and implementation, and on schedule for the elections slated for 26-27 November.Tenders for the printing of the ballot papers was placed in Namibia and South Africa and a South African company, Ren Form CC, has won the tender.The same company printed ballot papers for last year’s Presidential and National Assembly elections. ‘All political parties are welcome to witness the printing of the ballot papers at their own costs,’ said Tonchi.Tonchi said 600 000 ballot papers will be printed for Local Elections and 1 500 000 for the Regional Council Elections. The expected delivery date is November 7. He also touched on the issue of the nomination of candidates, the public display of the voters’ register and the objection period. He said the provisional voters’ register was displayed from September 20 – 27 to allow objections from individuals and political parties. ‘Rulings by magistrates were scheduled to run between 22 September and 15 October,’ he said.The purpose of displaying the register and allowing objections is to create an opportunity to clean the register of any discrepancies before printing and gazetting the final register.Nominations of candidates to contest in the elections started from the first of the month and will run until until October 18. Independent candidates are expected to submit their nominations the 16th of this month. The 18th of October was proclaimed as Nomination Day. Nominations submitted later than 11h00 on the 18th will not be accepted.Tonchi said the ECN was already in the process of packaging and dispatching all the non-sensitive election materials to the regions, while recruitment of election coordinators, assistant coordinators and returning officers has been completed.’The ECN is in the process of recruiting polling officials who will be expected to help with practical supervision during the elections. Training of election officials is set between 21 October and 20 November,’ he said.The Director of Elections, Moses Ndjarakana, said upcoming elections will be dealt with by a team of between 10 000 to 12 000 polling officers countrywide.