Seamen get an extra day to vote

UNLIKE the majority of Namibians who will vote on November 27 and 28 in the presidential and National Assembly elections, seagoing personnel will also get to vote on November 13.

This is the result of an amendment to the electoral law which came into effect about a month ago. About 7 000 seagoing workers, including scientists, inspectors and fisheries observers who may be at sea during this period, are affected by this law.The Deputy Director of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), Ananias Elago, informed representatives of the fishing industry of the new law during a meeting at Swakopmund yesterday.’In the past we battled to find a way for seagoing workers to register and vote because the law then was not clear. This year brought an amendment to make provision for these workers as to when and where they should register and vote from now,’ he said. ‘In the past we followed people around in the sea to register and vote – this was very cumbersome. This time, the law says they have to register and vote on land. The ECN decided that November 13 should be the date for these workers to vote on.’Polling stations will be set up at factories in Walvis Bay and Lüderitz on this date. The venues will be confirmed at a later stage.Supplementary registration continues until September 30, with an extended time from 08h00 to 21h00 to make up for last week’s delay.’There is enough time for seagoing workers to go register, and therefore employers must give staff the opportunity to go register, so they can be legible to vote,’ said Elago.Representatives of the fishing industry, especially the hake sector, told The Namibian that they would suffer production losses and extra fuel costs if they had to come ashore for voting on the 13th.The hake sector with its large factory vessels, which can have up to 60 workers on board, will only start going out to sea at the start of November. Some of the vessels are out at sea for up to 40 days.’Now we have to go out to sea for ten days and come back for the workers to vote, and then sail out to sea again,’ one operator said.’This is going to cost in fuel and production time.’Others said there would be a congestion of vessels in the harbour on the 13th if all the vessels had to return for the special voting date.Elago acknowledged this, and said vessels could return to port later in November for voting on the 27th and 28th.’Seagoing personnel can vote on the normal dates too, but then they will be treated like the rest of the Namibian voters, and will therefore have no excuses for not having had the special opportunity to vote earlier,’ he said.