More teams, vehicles to be deployed for voter drive

THE Electoral Commission of Namibia has recruited 112 new mobile teams and will work two more hours in the evening as the electoral body runs against time to register all eligible voters for the November presidential and National Assembly elections.

The ECN will also hire vehicles from private rental companies – and appeal to individuals to lend them their cars – after Government only gave them 554 of the 716 cars needed to transport registration material.Briefing the media in Windhoek yesterday, Elections Director Moses Ndjarakana said the additional 112 mobile teams would register people between September 25 and 30.’God help us,’ he said, indicating that he hopes all will go well from now on.Many constituencies did not register people on the first two days last week, and some not on the third day either, because registration material, printers for voter’s cards and almost half of the 716 vehicles needed to transport the material were still missing in action. The materials failed to arrive in time due to a strike by customs officials at the Oliver Tambo International Airport in South Africa, while the slow release of vehicles by different ministries resulted in the no-show of many registration officials at dozens of registration points.Only Omaheke, Otjozondjupa, Kavango and Caprivi started with the registration on time.The registration is expected to end on September 30 but will do so at a very high cost to the State.Ndjarakana was unable to say how much the additional mobile teams and the vehicles would cost, but said Government had committed itself to ensure that the process ended smoothly.He confirmed that registration forms with 102 names went missing in the Aminuis constituency of the Omaheke Region over the weekend, but said there was no reason to panic as the registered people would be able to vote.’The Police investigation continues but the voters have their cards and can thus vote without any problem. We use the forms for our planning purposes and to enter the data into our system. We need them back for our register,’ Ndjarakana said.He said registration of Namibians abroad had also started without hassle.The inspection of the voters’ roll is expected to last from October 12 to 16 while the political parties must submit their list of 72 candidates on October 19.christof@namibian.com.na